Scotland Bill

My Lords, we have had a very lively and well informed debate, considering that we started over seven hours ago with the procedural amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth. It has been a very useful debate. My noble friend Lady Liddell—I call her Secretary of State emeritus for good reasons—alerted me to the fact that she was going to disagree with me. I did not realise that it would be such a gentle disagreement, because it was a very sensible contribution. She pointed out the genuine argument against my proposal, and I had taken account of it. It is a very genuine argument about timing that we need to be concerned about. There is never a good time for this, and we wish we had done it. My noble friend said that we had missed the boat. I wish we had had a review when we should have had one, but it is too late now. I am glad that the Minister has said that the Government would look at it at an appropriate time. If the noble Lord, Lord Stephen, is correct in what he said in intervening on my noble friend, there is hope that we might get agreement across parties and between this and the Scottish Parliament. That would certainly signal the way forward. I thank my noble friend Lord Browne for his very positive response. He was a bit hesitant about it, but it was very positive indeed. Someone said that this was not the vehicle to raise this issue, but it was the only vehicle open to me. I accept that it may not be the best way forward. Therefore, because I accept the point made by the Minister in his very helpful reply, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment 17 withdrawn.