International Criminal Court Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr John Battle (Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Leeds West, Labour)
Further to that point of order, Mr. Cook. I, too, am disappointed, but it is not for me to decide when the Committee reports—I am simply in charge of seeing the Bill through Committee. We had agreed a programme.
It was reported to me that the hon. Member for Reigate (Mr. Blunt) complained that we have reached clause 2 only because there have been interventions and lengthy statements from Government Members. That is not quite true. Our remarks are on the record, written down word for word. If anyone would like to count the number of words or measure the number of minutes that Government Members have spent replying to amendments, and compare those numbers with the amount of time spent moving the amendments, that might leave the Opposition with some space to reflect. We are more than happy to debate these topics in any order that the Opposition choose. The time is in their hands. We wait with interest.