Parliamentary Standards Bill

I did not say "informal legal advice", but "advice". In fact, my amendment referred to "advice and counsel". Let us suppose a Clerk of the House was allocated the duty of advising Members who were the subject of complaints, or of advising Members on how to conduct themselves if they believe that they have broken the rules. It seems quite reasonable that an hon. Member should have someone in the House to turn to. They might well say, "Well, in your circumstances you should go and get legal advice," but we should avoid somebody's having to take that step initially as it might be quite a low-level complaint. There should be some way of dealing with low-level complaints without resorting to lawyers.