Procedure Committee: 2nd Report
The Chairman of Committees
That the Report from the Select Committee on Law Commission Bills (2nd Report, HL Paper 30) be agreed to.
The Chairman of Committees (Lord Brabazon of Tara)
My Lords, I beg to move that the second report of the Procedure Committee be agreed to.
Lord Campbell-Savours
Can the noble Lord explain how that new procedure works? It may well be of interest to the House.
The Chairman of Committees
My Lords, a couple of years ago, in April 2008, the House agreed to new procedures for consideration of certain non-controversial Law Commission Bills on a trial basis. They involve holding the Second Reading debate in the Moses Room, with a Motion for Second Reading subsequently being taken formally in the Chamber. The Committee stage is then generally conducted by means of a Special Public Bill Committee, and then Report and Third Reading take place in the Chamber, as with other Bills. For a much fuller explanation of the procedure, I refer the noble Lord to the original report of the Procedure Committee of February 2008. I shall not go into it at length.
These procedures were successfully trialled in respect of two Bills, which both received Royal Assent. Since then, the chief executive of the Law Commission and your Lordships’ Constitution Committee have confirmed that they favour making the new procedures permanent, and that is what the House is being asked to do today.