Amendment to the Motion

Part of Business of the House - Motion on Standing Orders – in the House of Lords at 12:15 pm on 30 December 2020.

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Photo of Lord Ashton of Hyde Lord Ashton of Hyde Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords), Deputy Chairman of Committees 12:15, 30 December 2020

My Lords, I echo the previous speaker’s remarks on the staff who have helped us be here today. They have to do it; we do it for fun, and because, actually, we have a serious job in front of us. As I made clear in my opening remarks, we had to make a difficult decision about how best to use the time available to us.

I turn specifically to the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Adonis. You can tell he was the Secretary of State for Transport: you wait for weeks for an Adonis amendment and then two come along at once. But that is why I am particularly grateful that he has not moved the first—and ruined my joke, really.

But, seriously, he and a lot of other noble Lords have asked why the House was not recalled earlier than today. The deal was agreed late on Christmas Eve, and the Bill and its associated documents then had to be finalised, so today is the soonest the legislation could be considered. Also, bearing in mind that we are in the middle of a pandemic, we had to use hybrid proceedings—which involve speakers’ lists beforehand—otherwise we would have excluded many Peers who wanted to speak.

Perhaps I might say a quick word about the timing—about before and after. The reason that we have to finish today, in this sitting, is that the UK and the EU need to exchange notification of completion of procedures for provisional application early on Thursday 31 December. This exchange cannot be done until the Bill has received Royal Assent, as the passing of the legislation is a necessary procedure for provisional application. So we were very much stuck in a gap between being able to do it when the Bill and its associated documents were ready and having to do it at a very quick pace.

If we did as the noble Lord would like and had a provision for a substantive Committee stage, the time available for Second Reading would necessarily be reduced, and far fewer Back-Benchers would be able to take part. As I said, our proceedings today cannot be open-ended—Royal Assent must be notified to both Houses today.

We have heard that many noble Lords do not like the deal, and there have been criticisms of the negotiating process; I expect that we will hear more of that later on today. But I ask the House to consider what the alternative will be if the Bill does not complete its passage through the House today, which the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, referred to.

If I might say a word about precedent, I repeat what I said in my opening remarks that the way we have to consider the Bill today is not in keeping with our usual practices. The House rightly takes pride in its role as a revising Chamber, but today, time really is of the essence, and I consider these circumstances to be exceptional.

The noble Lord, Lord Purvis, is quite right: a Bill was fast-tracked in exactly the same way the day we rose for the Christmas Recess. I do not know where that leaves us; either he is right that there is a precedent or the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, is right that there is not and that it has not been done before. It has been done before but the more important point is that I have stated on behalf of the Government that we do not consider today to be a precedent, so that can be referred to. Of course, this self-governing House is able to reform its procedures, but I say again that we do not consider that in the normal course of events other Bills should be done like this. Many Bills have been fast-tracked and each time it is up to the House to do that. However, it is important that—this is what was discussed in the usual channels—I make it quite clear that this today is not regarded as a precedent.

The noble Lord, Lord Purvis, asked me some detailed questions about post-legislative scrutiny and economic impact assessments. If it is okay with him, I will get a proper answer to that. I do not have the details with me now but obviously, I will write to him and tell him where we are on that.

I understand the views of the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, on the usual procedures of the House but, in these exceptional circumstances, I respectfully ask him to withdraw his amendment, bearing in mind, as he says, that we are where we are.