Clause 44 - Scotland
Identity Cards Bill
9:45 am
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality), Home Office; Harrow East, Labour)
As the hon. Gentleman may have noticed, the Secretary of State is not present, but I shall pass on to him the fact that the hon. Gentleman does not think that he knows what a Sewel motion is. In terms of relations with Scotland, if the Bill required a Sewel motion, it would have had one before the last amendable stage of our Commons proceedings. That is not forthcoming. The Scottish Parliament is not in any way discussing a Sewel motion, because that is unnecessary for the Bill. It would have been slightly remiss of the Government to have got even this far in our proceedings if we had been told that we required a Sewel motion without having ensured that such deliberations were already under way. The Bill does not need a Sewel motion.