My Lords, I think I am the first non-lawyer to contribute, very briefly, to this debate. I see the Minister raising his hand and hope he will accept the point I will make.
As the House is aware, I am the chairman of your Lordships’ Select Committee on the Constitution and, as the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, said, have written to the Minister in that capacity about this amendment, simply to express the view that the committee, in its meeting last week, endorsed the amendment that has been proposed by the noble and learned Lord,
Lord Phillips. I am very grateful to the Minister for writing back to me in a letter with today’s date, which he concludes by saying:
“I can assure you that the Government remains committed to working with the Court to consider these issues”,
which he says are, of course, complex.
I was therefore a little disturbed to hear from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Phillips, in his introduction to the debate, that he felt that his discussions with the current president of the Supreme Court, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger, have run into the ground or “come to nothing”, which I think was the phrase he used. I would be grateful if the Minister, in replying, could perhaps elucidate or expand a little more on that sentence that he has written in his reply to me, that the Government are committed to working with the court to achieve these ends.