Parliamentary Standards Bill

I agree with the noble Lord that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, has indeed brought an important matter to your Lordships’ attention today. This has been a fascinating and high-quality debate, mainly, though not exclusively, between esteemed lawyers in your Lordships’ House. In a sense, that debate has shown the difficulty that there would be in reaching consensus, particularly in the short time that is available. I am aware that that will be used against me when I say that we have to be very careful about thinking of legislating in this area in the time available, given the different views that noble Lords have put forward. However, I accept the point that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, wishes to debate. He called it the "puzzle" of how to achieve fairness that complies with the rule of law and with ECHR rights but does not, he implied, undermine the privileges of Parliament. The noble Lord, Lord Wallace, asked what comfort I could give. There are a number of government amendments, some of which have been spoken to and some of which have yet to come before us, which I hope will give considerable comfort to noble Lords. Since we are where we are, though, I recognise that it has been difficult for noble Lords to take account of that in their comments. I begin with the point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Lester, about criminal charges. He said that he had no problem with that because those matters would have to go through the courts.