In the very short time left to me, I want to say two things. First, it is significant that the number of Opposition speakers far exceeded that of Government speakers. I therefore suspect that their heart is not really in it if Government Front Benchers could not roust out enough speakers to speak on the Bill.
Secondly, there has been plenty of time to get part 1 absolutely right. The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee was unequivocal in its criticism of the original consultation paper. Unusually, one of the recommendations was to withdraw the whole thing and start all over again, because it was so bad. Having sat through the evidence that we took at that time, it was clear to me that no one on any side of the debate on lobbying was satisfied. The people who wanted more regulation thought that the proposal was not good enough; the people who perhaps did not want regulation also thought that it was very bad.
For a whole year, there was no proper response from the Government. Normally, the Government respond to Select Committees with a detailed report that comments on and argues their position. There was none of that. The issue was kicked into the long grass. A lot of people outside the House noticed that there was nothing on lobbying in the Queen’s Speech. Then, all of a sudden, in a panic, the Bill comes forward. It is not a good Bill. We should not go ahead with it, but we need to do something about lobbying.
6.40 pm