House of Lords (Members’ Taxation Status) Bill [HL]

My Lords, before the noble Lord is too critical of my noble friend, my recollection is that there have been at least three Bills from the noble Lord on this subject, although I am happy to accept his assurance that this is the second. What is undoubtedly true—as the noble Lord has agreed—is that the Bill before us is identical to the Bill that he chose not to progress in the previous Session of Parliament for whatever reason, although I was glad that he did so. It is extraordinary that in the Marshalled List that we are about to deal with he has seen fit to table precisely the amendments that we suggested he should look at last year. If he had taken the trouble to reread the Committee stage that we had last year and taken into account the amendments that were proposed at that stage, he would not have needed to propose the amendments that he will propose today. I suspect that I know what happens in the noble Lord’s mind. He walks into his office, has a great idea and says to his secretary, "Remember that Bill we did last year? Press the button, belt it out again; prepare 10 press releases". That is not the way we should legislate. I do not know whether my noble friend is tempted to press this Question to a Division. However, if he were to do so, I would be unable to support him. At any stage of my being in this House, as a Member of either the Government Front Bench or of the Opposition, I do not think that I have ever been through a Committee stage when I have not been very grateful for the advice and helpful contributions from all sides of the Chamber. I, for one, am rather looking forward to this Committee stage. I hope that, at the end of it, we end up with a far better Bill than we have before us at the moment.