International Criminal Court Bill [Lords]
9:55 am
Mr John Battle (Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Leeds West, Labour)
I beg to move,
That—
(1) during proceedings of the Standing Committee on the International Criminal Court Bill [Lords], the Committee do meet—
(a) on Tuesday 10th April at five minutes to Ten o'clock and half-past Two o'clock, and
(b) from Tuesday 24th April, on Tuesdays, at half-past Ten o'clock and half-past Four o'clock, and on Thursdays, at five minutes to Ten o'clock and half-past Two o'clock;
(2) the proceedings on the Bill shall be taken in the following order, namely, Clauses 1 to 24, Schedule 2, Clauses 25 to 28, Schedule 3, Clauses 29 to 34, Schedule 4, Clauses 35 to 37, Schedule 5, Clause 38, Schedule 6, Clauses 39 to 42, Schedule 7, Clauses 43 to 50, Schedule 8, Clauses 51 to 54, Schedule 9, Clauses 55 to 83, Schedule 10, Clause 84, Schedule 1, new Clauses, new Schedules;
(3) if not previously concluded, the proceedings of the Committee on the Bill shall be brought to a conclusion at Five o'clock on Thursday 3rd May.
I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Cook, and accept your comments as an invitation to take off my jacket, although other upper garments will remain in place. All Committee members look forward to working under your careful stewardship and the usual impartial, relaxed and humorous style in which you conduct business. I hope that this will be an enjoyable Committee for all members.
The Bill is sizeable, legally complex and technical. Its purpose, as was made clear in the excellent Second Reading debate, is to enable Britain to sign up properly to the Rome statute on the International Criminal Court. In moving the programme motion, I should make it plain that there is some urgency about the matter, hence we are programming the Committee to ensure that there is proper consideration and debate of all the clauses, with flexibility to allow the Opposition to table searching amendments, to which we look forward.
There is a sense of urgency because other countries are moving ahead. The Swiss Parliament recommended on 13 March that its Government ratify the Rome statute, and the Croatian Parliament passed a law of ratification on 28 March. There is urgency also because we have been heavily engaged in the formative stages of the court and negotiating the details to get it established. We want to be one of the early signatories—among the first 60.