Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I am sorry that my noble friend has taken that view particularly strongly in the last few moments. When I made the point that the Bill was very welcome in that it banned clauses that tried to allocate responsibility for legal costs when there was no fault on the part of that party, I mentioned other similar clauses that typically existed and asked how they were to be dealt with except by some future legislation, which I suggested was unlikely to be just a year or two off and was much more likely to be at least a decade away. Unfortunately, the Minister has left it at that. As far as I understood him, he has not indicated much, if any, support for the notion that a standard scheme for all could be devised with fairness for all in mind and that that would be much better than trying to deal ad hoc with abuses, as and when they arise, some of which cannot be foreseen by him, by me or by anyone else. It is a pity that he has taken that view. Of course I must consider fully at this stage what he has been saying, and withdraw my amendment.