Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

Moving on to the other elements in Part 5, which are all a bit different from the one I have just talked about, again we had to make a judgment given the very limited time we have to get through some of the important parts of this Bill: Part 1 on the Civil Service; Part 2 on treaties and other parts, including one that is of particular concern to Members of this House in relation to their status; and we also need to get through the IPSA clauses. We had to make a judgment, and the judgment we have made is that it is best, for the moment at least, not to continue with Part 5. If we were to continue with it, the legitimate discussions that would have taken place, even though they would have found a pretty broad consensus around the House, would inevitably have taken longer than we have got in order to get the Bill to another place. I do not say that this is an ideal state of affairs for Her Majesty’s Government, but we are being realistic in the circumstances.