Coroners and Justice Bill

I apologise to the noble and learned Lord for intervening before him. Where we speak in the batting order in Committee does not matter particularly, but his intervention is at least interesting in that it has no doubt provided some solace for the Government. It is a convention in this House that we can put down only four names to any amendment. However, my late noble friend and I so much wanted to support this amendment in the name of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, and the other noble Lords who have spoken, that we added our own Amendment 189A, which amends the second paragraph and changes "follow" to "have regard to". I do not need to add much to what they said other than to say that we very much support it. The question is how we should take it from now on. The noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, questioned the Government’s motivation in using the words "must follow" rather than "must have regard to". For once I am going to be kind to the Government and suggest it might be inadvertence on this occasion rather than malice that has brought them to put this forward. I suggest to the noble and learned Lord that it might not be appropriate to divide the Committee on this matter tonight. We now have a long summer ahead of us—one of these recesses the Government give us that seem to go on for ever. That will give the Government an opportunity to re-examine the clause and come back with improvements. We hope that the Government will agree with the fundamental principles that have been put forward by those who support this amendment and will draft their own amendments along the lines that have been suggested by the noble and learned Lord. It will not take much tweaking to remedy this and get it right. I have one other question. There are four amendments in this group—one in the name of the noble and learned Lord, one in my name and two government amendments. Before any decision is made, we obviously need a proper explanation from the Government as to what their amendments are about because I cannot quite understand them. It may be that, in the myriad of letters that have been pouring out of the Ministry of Justice over the past few months, there was one letter dealing with these amendments. If so, it is probably in the wrong tray on my desk and I cannot find it. But no doubt the Minister will give us an explanation which all those who have spoken will want to consider carefully before deciding what to do. Again, now is not necessarily the moment to press this, but the Government need to come forward with something better before Report. For once, rather than the usual two weeks, they have something like three months to consider this. That should be enough time even for the Ministry of Justice. We can then make up our minds come October as to what to do about it.