My Lords, I am well able to spot mental fatigue when I see it and so I shall be extremely short and associate myself with the remarks of the noble Lords, Lord Norton of Louth and Lord Pannick.
I was a member of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Renewal Bill and I am also a member of the Constitution Committee, so what I am going to say will not be surprising. In paragraph 7 of the Joint Committee’s report, we drew attention to the fact that we were given just 10 sitting weeks for pre-legislative scrutiny instead of the recommended three to four months. We also noted that the risk of a constricted timetable may not have allowed us, ""to realise the full potential of the pre-legislative scrutiny process"."
That sounds rather ironic now: we reported on the Bill in July 2008 but it took the Government almost exactly one year to produce a response and publish the Bill. That is not the mark of a vigorous Government responding to a report, almost all of whose recommendations they have in fact adopted; it is characteristic of a comatose rabbit.
It is obvious that neither House will have been able to scrutinise the whole Bill as major constitutional reform should be scrutinised. I have said that I am content with many of the Bill’s proposals. That is not surprising, because the provisions in the main—in half the Bill—follow the recommendations of the Joint Committee. However, almost half the Bill has not received pre-legislative review. Points made at Second Reading in this House do not constitute and cannot substitute for detailed scrutiny, which is the very essence and raison d’être of this House. Any suggestion that this, a constitutional Bill, should be left to wash-up is not right in principle or practice. For a Bill that deals with constitutional reform to be handled in this way shows, I am saddened to say, that this House is regarded as an irrelevance.
Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Hart of Chilton
(Labour)
in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 24 March 2010.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
718 c1035-6 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
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2024-04-21 23:56:46 +0100
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