European Affairs

I cannot give an absolute assurance on that, but I shall refer in my winding-up speech to some of the matters my hon. Friend is raising. May I suggest one way in which the European Scrutiny Committee can be very helpful? As he says, many member states do not carry out the parliamentary scrutiny that his Committee and Lord Roper's Committee do, which is one reason why they do not believe there is any necessity to adhere to the eight-week provision. Anything he could do to persuade other Parliaments to take up the scrutiny role that he has would help to ensure that that period is adhered to as faithfully as possible.