Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

Of course I acted on advice from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland—it would have been eccentric if I had not done so. We had made a general policy decision to move to a 20-year period, and my right hon. Friend made what I regarded as cogent arguments for why it should remain 30 years in Northern Ireland, which I accepted for reasons that I have tried to spell out. Because that decision did not affect the status quo, there was nothing on which to consult the Northern Ireland Assembly directly. It is worth bearing in mind that, as I recall, there was no Northern Ireland Assembly when the original Act was passed.