Violent Crime Reduction Bill
9:00 am
Humfrey Malins (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Woking, Conservative)
On a point of order, Mr. Benton. It is a significant point of order, and I have been able to give you brief notice of it. I apologise for the fact that it might take a little while, but it is a matter of considerable importance not only to the Committee but to a much wider audience.
A huge part of the Bill deals with firearms and replica firearms. As was said in our debate on the sittings motion, tens or even hundreds of thousands of persons in the country pursue genuine, innocent hobbies that relate to firearms. Over the past few months, they have lobbied my hon. Friends and me in considerable detail—correctly so—in relation to matters of importance to them. My hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) has had the closest involvement in these extremely complex issues. My hon. Friend and I and others have prepared a series of amendments in relation to this contentious part of the Bill. It is astonishing that, as late as the day before yesterday—which in real terms means yesterday, given that they had to be printed—the Government had the audacity to table a series of new amendments to the Bill dealing with many of the vital issues that need to be debated at some length. We have been taken utterly by surprise.
Is it not astonishing, Mr. Benton, that having had the whole of the summer and most of the autumn to take a new stance and prepare more amendments, the Government failed utterly to tell the Committee what they were doing? [Interruption.] I am putting my point of order, even if the Minister does not like it.