European Union (Amendment) Bill

My Lords, I am most grateful. Noble Lords have just heard from a parliamentarian with great experience and are now hearing from a novice in parliamentary matters. I have the privilege of being a member of the Constitution Committee. I take that responsibility very seriously. As a newcomer, I was deeply impressed by the way the process occurred, with the Lord President coming before us and working to meet the genuine concerns of the Committee about safeguarding the parliamentary position of both Houses, while at the same time recognising the practicalities of the European dimension that made the situation more complex than it would otherwise have been. As far as I know, this was a novel way of meeting and addressing that difficulty. As such, it would be desirable for it to have sympathetic and helpful consideration by this House. I am satisfied that it provides the protection that we need in regard to these opt-ins and opt-outs, which are not part of the everyday diet of this House. I see it as a way of achieving the same result, with deference to what the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, said, as would be obtained by the proposed amendment that was the initial way in which the Committee sought to safeguard what we are all concerned to protect. Like some, but not all, members of the Committee, I urge the House to accept this novel initiative. I sought to press the Lord President on one matter of which I am very conscious. As we are dealing with questions that go to the heart of the concerns of the judiciary, there should be some indication of how the judiciary would be consulted about this immediate and quick process. So far, the Lord President has not found a way of accepting the suggestion I made, but I ask her to give it further consideration. It may be that there was no opportunity for her to do so in the time available, but if I may say so, the particular opt-ins I am talking about are of great importance to the judiciary. In the future it will not be possible for the Lord Chief Justice of the day to get in a taxi, come here and address your Lordships directly, which could have happened before, and I respectfully suggest that this concern needs to be taken into account. If the Lord President would find a way of doing that, I think that the judiciary would be most grateful.