I should first make it clear that I am not and never have been a member of the Faculty of Advocates—something of which I am immensely proud. I was only ever a humble solicitor.

Will not the role of the Advocate-General become increasingly important if Labour Ministers such as Malcolm Chisholm in Edinburgh put themselves at loggerheads with Home Office Ministers on issues such as the disgraceful practice of carrying out dawn raids on the families of asylum seekers whose applications have been refused? Surely that makes it more important that there should be some mechanism by which we can directly question the Advocate-General, rather than the second-hand examples that we have seen today.