Amendment to the Motion

Part of Business of the House - Motion to Agree – in the House of Lords at 3:06 pm on 26 March 2019.

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Photo of Lord True Lord True Chair, Intergenerational Fairness and Provision Committee, Chair, Intergenerational Fairness and Provision Committee 3:06, 26 March 2019

I was seeking to make a procedural point on behalf of your Lordships’ House. Our normal procedures are not there to protect the Government, let alone to protect them from any criticism, but to protect Members of your Lordships’ House and of the other place to allow them to make representations and for us to hear a considered report. I believe that that is the procedure that we should follow.

We have heard that the Joint Committee is meeting tomorrow. There are many precedents for the Joint Committee to lay its report before the House after its meeting. The current circumstances are far from normal, as the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, has said, and there is a compelling case for this SI and a report on it to have been considered and reported on by the JCSI, which should be done tomorrow. Then, if need be, the Government could bring the SI before this House tomorrow, except in the evening rather than as first business, and all noble Lords would be informed by what our Joint Committee—which otherwise will be labouring to no purpose if we have already debated the matter—has said.

I do not believe that any part of Parliament should be bypassed by an exceptional Motion in that way, nor do I believe that your Lordships should lightly give up these scrutiny protections. Encouraged by what my noble friend has said, I ask her not to press the exceptional Motion, which will provide further precedents for the future, but to await tomorrow’s consideration and report by the Joint Committee and, if need be, we can proceed with the business later tomorrow or on Thursday. I really think it is unnecessary and high-handed to have laid such a Motion in the circumstances that my noble friend has set out when the committee is meeting tomorrow to consider the matter anyway. I beg her to reconsider her Motion and beg to move my own.