Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

Debate between Lord Falconer of Thoroton and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Monday 14th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton]

My Lords—

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I think that it is the general mood of the House that it is time to hear from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, from the opposition Front Bench.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton]

My Lords, I am obliged to the Chief Whip. Amendments are admissible in this House if they are, to quote the Companion,

“relevant to the subject matter of the Bill and to the clause or Schedule to which they are proposed”.

As is well known, the Public Bill Office has advised your Lordships that this particular amendment is not admissible. The view of the movers is that the amendment is relevant and therefore admissible. I share that view. The first question for your Lordships today is: how is a disagreement such as this to be resolved? The Companion specifies that the Public Bill Office advises on whether an amendment is admissible and it is expected that that advice will be taken. The Companion states that the decision on admissibility—again, it makes this clear—can ultimately be decided only by the House itself. It lays down a procedure; namely, it requires the Leader to put the advice of the clerks. While normally the advice of the Public Bill Office will give rise to no difficulty and will be plainly right—hence the expectation—if the mover of the amendment has good reason to contend that the amendment is relevant, and he or she has discussed it with the Public Bill Office and still holds that view, then he or she is entitled to put it to the House.

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Debate between Lord Falconer of Thoroton and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Monday 7th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton]

My understanding when I was a Minister was that, when an amendment was carried, the Government would bring forward amendments to tidy up the Bill to reflect the position in relation to the plain intent of the amendment—in this case, Amendment A1. We always did this and we expect the Government to make the rest of the Bill reflect the effect of the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Rooker.

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, perhaps I may assist the House from my memory of our long period in opposition, when the noble and learned Lord was a Minister. There were two occasions on which the Government might have taken action. One was when it was agreed in advance that an amendment was consequential on an amendment that was carried. I believe that that is not the matter to which the noble and learned Lord referred. He may be referring to the second occasion, which was that, when an amendment was carried, the sense of the rest of the Bill had then to be tidied up in order to reflect the spirit of the decision taken by the House.

Perhaps the noble and learned Lord would confirm that it is the second of those occasions to which he refers, because there was no agreement that this amendment was consequential on the first when the Division took place earlier today. That is not to say that the Government refuse to look at the implications of the Division’s result. However, the noble and learned Lord will be aware that there was no undertaking to consider this amendment as consequential on the first and he will of course appreciate that there is a difference between the two positions.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton]

My Lords, I am entirely unclear what the difference is. Amendment A1 states:

“If less than 40% of the electorate vote in the referendum, the result shall not be binding”.

The noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, says that if one puts in “may”, one makes it unbinding even if the turnout is more than 40 per cent. Is that consequential or is it tidying up? I have no idea. I would like to know what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, is promising to do. With respect to the Chief Whip, I found the distinction meaningless, unhelpful and ill informed.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords—

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton]

Perhaps I might finish my point.

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

It is customary, when a noble Lord accuses another Member of the House of being ignorant, to give them the opportunity to reply.

[The Deputy Speaker]

My Lords, it might be helpful to the House if I remind noble Lords that we are on Report.