European Parliament (House of Lords Disqualification) Regulations 2008

My Lords, I shall try to explain Regulation 4—I know that the House is sitting late tonight. I think that Regulation 4(1)(b) exercised the noble Lord in particular; he said that it is unnecessary. It follows the model in existing primary legislation, such as the Insolvency Act 1986. That is how we approached the writ of summons issue, rather than in the way that it was dealt with in 2005. That is why the wording appears as it does. We are happy to take that away to consider whether it was appropriate. On Regulation 4(2) and whether there is a gap in the writ of summons disqualification: yes, there clearly is. A Peer who is an MEP would continue to hold the writ of summons in the time, which there may well be, before the next Parliament, but the regulations follows the model in other legislation—again I go back to the Insolvency Act 1986, where exactly the same thing applies. If someone is disqualified under that Act, their writ of summons still exists but they are left in the same position as would be an MEP under the regulations. It would be excessively technical to try to cater for this short period. The same issue could arise if a Peer was made bankrupt and there was still some time before the next Parliament. Having heard my arguments, I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, will think very carefully about what to do next. My advice is that he should not test the opinion of the House.