Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I have to say to my noble friend that, when I first came into government, I inherited nearly 3,000 unanswered letters. As I was the most junior Minister in the Treasury, these letters were pushed down the chain. Noble friends from the other place will realise how this game is played. As far as a junior Minister is concerned, those letters came to me. Whether they were addressed to the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, they seemed to come to me, and I tried to move some of them on to someone else, but there was no one below me in the Treasury. If I did not read all the replies, it was not due to a lack of effort, although I was struck by the great difference between Members of Parliament who took this role seriously and those who did not. I see that in the context, as my noble friend Lady Taylor has said, of this legislation being carried through the Commons largely on the votes of people who are very new to Parliament.