Part of Infrastructure Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:45 pm on 15 January 2015.
On a point of order, Sir Roger. Having changed the Bill’s long title, we have now reached the conclusion of our proceedings. It is probably good that the Bill already contained provision for invasive non-native species, because we have seen quite a few of them added to the Bill, and it is good that the long title was able to accommodate that. We have had some good discussions in Committee, and I have certainly learned many new things. I was previously unaware of the existence of killer shrimps, which caused a lot of mirth until we were brought up rather sharpish with the explanation that it is an important issue—at which point we all quickly adopted a more serious pose. If I were to pick out a debate in Committee that attracted a lot of attention, it would not be the one about the Highways Agency or about shale gas, but the one about invasive non-native species.
We will be reporting the Bill to the House in a while and, on a serious point, there are still things that need to be discussed. There is the electronic communications code, which we talked about today, and we already know that there is a need for further scrutiny on issues relating to shale gas extraction, Highways Agency reform and other things. Through you, Sir Roger, I put to the Minister some of the things that were raised in Committee. Two days on Report is not too much to ask.
This has been a good-natured Committee. At some stages I wondered where the safari would go next in political philosophy and literature. We have heard about Yeats and, today, St Augustine. We have heard numerous references to Burke, and Disraeli has been here, too. Opposition Members have been able to manage C.S. Lewis—