Civil Contingencies Bill
4:14 pm
Baroness Buscombe (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Conservative)
My Lords, I immediately offer my support to the noble Lord, Lord Monson, in what he has just said. Some of the wording simply does not make sense.
I am extremely disappointed that we have been unable to persuade the Government to assist your Lordships in trying, as we have all been doing throughout the passage of the Bill, to raise the threshold of what can reasonably be described as an emergency. So I have enormous sympathy with the amendments proposed by my noble friend Lord Lucas. His argument is well rehearsed and the Government know full well how we on these Benches feel about that aspect of the Bill's drafting. The current drafting is too ambiguous, wide and open to misinterpretation. It is essential to get the drafting correct.
In response to the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, I must say that we have already debated a number of the issues to which he referred.