Clause 1 - Electoral regions in the United Kingdom
European Parliament (Representation) Bill
4:30 pm
Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
These amendments are the equivalent of gently knocking up across the net before the start of a match. They should not detain us long.
I said on Second Reading that the architecture of the Bill was wrong in essence, in that it is more logical to deal with enfranchisement of Gibraltar for European Parliament purposes before changing the basis on which that representation takes place, which is encompassed in part 1. Had I had a free hand and unlimited time to propose amendments, I might have tried to reconstruct the Bill in its entirety, but that probably would have been inappropriate. If part 2 finds favour with the Committee and we allow for the representation of Gibraltar within one of the regions of England, Wales or, indeed, Scotland or Northern Ireland within the compass of the Bill, part 1 clearly will include the territory of Gibraltar. It seems to be a minor drafting error not to include it in clause 1. That is the intention of our small amendment.
It would be so encouraging to start this Bill with agreement throughout the Committee and to add those words to the Bill.