Scotland Bill

I have no idea where distinguished Members of this House might be at this time of night—but, certainly, those who have sense are not here. My point is that this matter needs to be dealt with within the existing structures, in which we have had confidence for many years and which have been proof to these sorts of challenges in the past. Consequently—and I do not think that on this occasion my noble friend Lord Foulkes will be disappointed in me—I cannot support his amendment. However, the nature of the short debate that we have had has revealed the need for some broader discussion than we get in some newspapers in Scotland and some reassurance from the Civil Service itself that it will be able robustly to address these issues, or at least to explain in a persuasive way that the impartiality of the Civil Service has not been undermined. Finally, I remind my noble friend Lord Foulkes of Cumnock of the debate on his Amendment 51, which sought to amend Clause 27 by constraining discussions between representatives of the devolved Administration —the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government—and foreign Governments. He was, on that occasion, persuaded that the strictures that he was seeking to impose on the representatives of the Scottish Government could not have been policed and would not have been realistic. I suspect that if we had time to go over the criticisms of his current amendment, he would have come to that conclusion again. I just remind him of how he was persuaded by my noble and learned friend Lord Boyd on that occasion and trust he will get back into that state of mind when it comes to responding to this short debate.