My difficulty with my noble and learned friend’s reply is that he keeps saying: “I hope that Members of the House will be reassured”, but we need reassurance in the legislation itself. The problem is that there are no controlling principles. We do not have a written constitutional charter of rights, the nearest we have is the European convention, which is pretty vague and not tailored to these particular needs. When we come to Amendment 90 at night-time on Monday, where the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, and I have tried to put in some constitutional standards, it will be interesting to see whether at least that is accepted. Does my noble and learned friend follow that what we seek to do is put some controlling criteria, other than ministerial assurances, in the Bill to make it constitutionally appropriate?
Justice and Security Bill [HL]
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Lester of Herne Hill
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 17 July 2012.
It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL)
and
Debate on bills on Justice and Security Bill [HL].
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
739 c178 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2023-11-28 15:25:05 +0000
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