Committee (5th Day)

Part of Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill – in the House of Lords at 6:30 pm on 15 December 2010.

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Photo of Lord Howarth of Newport Lord Howarth of Newport Labour 6:30, 15 December 2010

Can I press the Minister a little bit on his statement just now that the Lord President-the Deputy Prime Minister-steered this legislation very successfully through the House of Commons? Is his concept of successful passage through that House that the Bill was programmed and that very important sections of it were not examined either in Committee or on Report? Yes, the coalition got its way in the House of Commons but the upshot of that is that there is a particular duty on this House to examine the Bill in the most minute detail, precisely to make up the deficit caused by the failure of the House of Commons to examine this legislation properly. What does the Minister mean by successfully steering the Bill through the House of Commons: that the Bill should be properly scrutinised, or simply that the Whips should ensure that it passes without being scrutinised?