Welfare Reform Bill

Countess of Mar Excerpts
Tuesday 8th November 2011

(12 years, 12 months ago)

Grand Committee
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Lord Freud Portrait Lord Freud
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I feel drawn to say, in response to the noble Baroness, that I was very happy with how the amendments were grouped, because it allowed me to deal with a complicated set of issues in their entirety. When amendments are degrouped you very often find that you are arguing one thing at one time and then miss a key part of your argument and have to repeat it. So I would plead with the noble Baroness to accept that at least I was very happy with how it was done and that we got through a very difficult set of issues—I know how difficult they are—in reasonable order.

Countess of Mar Portrait The Deputy Chairman of Committees (The Countess of Mar)
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My Lords, if I could offer some guidance, the groupings are informal and noble Lords are perfectly at liberty to decouple amendments if they are not happy.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham Portrait Baroness Hollis of Heigham
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The noble Baroness the Deputy Chairman of Committees is absolutely right, but you do have to lead on the amendment group to have that right.