No, I will not give that undertaking. The rule committee will have the basis for consultation and the basis of the debate and it will be subject to the
usual parliamentary procedure, meaning that each House will have the option to vote against—so to that extent. That is perhaps an answer.
The debate has been of a very high quality. Indeed, I pay tribute, as other noble Lords have, to the scrutiny that the Bill generally—not just the matters that we are dealing with today—has received from every quarter of the House. There have been different fields of expertise brought to good effect in the course of the consideration of the Bill by your Lordships’ House. There have been a considerable number of amendments to the Bill in many different areas. Today, and in the course of the most recent debates, we have focused on the modification of the reforms of judicial review and in relation to parliamentary oversight of under-15s and girls in secure colleges—and, indeed, on the secure college rules, which will now be subject to an affirmative resolution. However, there have been other important amendments, such as the new offence of revenge pornography; the custody arrangement for 17 year-olds; various provisions to clamp down on dishonest personal injury claims; and extending reporting restrictions to young people, to name but a few.
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Her Majesty’s Opposition, for the most part through the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, have provided thorough and sometimes fierce scrutiny, peppered with literary allusions and no little humour. I thank all those who have assisted in contributing to what has been a very much improved Bill, which is greatly to the credit of the House, but I hope that the House will forgive me if most of all I pay tribute to the Bill team, the officials and lawyers who have worked on this complex Bill. They have done so at considerable pace, grappling with complex issues with great skill and good humour. With those words, I beg the House to support the Government’s amendments.