Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, the committee's position, and certainly my personal position, is that given the inadequate processes that have produced this legislation, some form of post-legislative scrutiny was needed. I do not remember whether the noble Lord was present when the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, led the previous debate on a similar subject, but the discussion included the issue of whether there was...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, the House has been very generous in its consideration of the report of the Select Committee on the Constitution, which I have the privilege to chair. However, one aspect of our report has received scant attention, although the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, referred to it briefly. That is the question, also mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, of government manipulation of...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: Before the noble Lord sits down, will he help me with the force of his argument about the imposition of party politics on the kind of provision that the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, and his associates have suggested to the House when that will take place, as I understand it, immediately after a general election? It is not, as it was in the circumstances which he describes, something that Prime...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: I understand the noble and learned Lord's point. However, as I tried to ask on previous occasions, does he take the point that a five-year term for this Parliament and this Government could have been achieved in a way that did not involve this Bill?
Baroness Jay of Paddington: I wonder if I could draw the noble and learned Lord's attention to the conclusion of the Select Committee report. He is right that in paragraph 17 of our report we distinguished between the long and the short term. That was in the context of the broader discussion of the relevance of fixed-term Parliaments. But when we came to draw up our conclusions, we said that, "the majority of the...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, I hesitate to repeat the quotation that I gave from the Constitution Committee's proceedings in the last debate, but surely the answer to the question put by the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, is the one that Mr Mark Harper gave to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, in response to exactly the same question-hypothetical though the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, suggests it is-which...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: I go back to my point about the use of the phrase "safety valve", which I think appears throughout the Constitution Committee's report in quotation marks. The question about whether it is for the Executive or the legislature is not one we pursued. In response to the exchanges we have just heard between the Minister and the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, one is brought back to the question raised...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, I am sorry to interrupt the noble and learned Lord again but that is precisely the point I was making earlier. Those were the understandings within the context of this Bill and not the political judgments which have been expressed, rightly, in this debate.
Baroness Jay of Paddington: Perhaps I may help the Committee by saying that when the Constitution Committee, to which my noble friend Lady Hayter rightly referred, appeared to support the notion of 14 days, this was an entirely constitutional judgment in the context of the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill. It was not a political judgment. Perhaps I may draw the attention of the Committee to the exchange between my noble and...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, I join noble Lords all around the House in congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, on his sparkling maiden speech. I was very touched by his kind references to my father, James Callaghan. It was very kind of him to speak in that way. I declare my interest as chairman of your Lordships' Select Committee on the Constitution, of which we have heard much this afternoon in...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords-
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My remarks are exactly on this point.
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, I am sure that no noble Lord on this side of the House is sufficiently naive to think that social change can be achieved through one change in the law, as was referred to in the Statement. None the less, can the Minister tell the House of any single piece of social change, particularly in the equalities area, which has not been underpinned by appropriate legislation?
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords-
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, at a time when the so-called special relationship is quite often under threat, is the Minister aware of the important fact that there are 10 Marshall scholars in President Obama's Administration? Given what we know of the generosity of previous scholars-for example, their personal donations to British universities far outweigh the scholarship's £2 million cost to the FCO-it is very...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, the whole House will be very grateful to the Minister for taking the trouble to give us his personal analysis and description of his reply to the debate. It is very encouraging to hear-as I asked at the outset-that some of the things which were raised in the committee's report have already been adopted by the Government. We understand, of course, the problems of dealing with this...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to open this debate on the Constitution Committee's report entitled "Referendums in the United Kingdom". The report, which we published in April, was the last one produced under the distinguished chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Goodlad, who I can just see in his place and who I am delighted will be speaking immediately after me. Perhaps I may take this...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, perhaps I may reinforce the comment made by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, about good employment practice with members of personal staff, particularly secretaries, who cannot be laid off in terms of good employment practice for three months in the summer and then reappointed. There may be something to be looked at further than that. On a broader point, has the noble Lord considered...
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords-
Baroness Jay of Paddington: My Lords, given that the coalition has clearly set out the policy that it wants to see in terms of the Bill to be presented to both Houses of Parliament, what is the agenda, the remit, for this committee?