Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2012

Lord Phillips of Sudbury Excerpts

Monday 3rd December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bach]

There is a framework Act of Parliament, passed by Parliament, which I have never sought to go behind. These orders add flesh to those bones. This is a very important order. In any event, the Government would have to have some kind of order on these matters. On this occasion, the Government have, in effect, not kept with the intention that they certainly had in the House of Commons. By announcing what they did in the Commons, they managed not to lose a vote and to get the Bill through. As a consequence, it is a serious matter.

[Lord Phillips of Sudbury]

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Bach—I almost said “my noble friend”, which he is. My noble friend Lord McNally has not commented on the noble Lord’s fundamental assertion on which, for me, the strength of the case rests; namely, that the former Lord Chancellor made a clear undertaking which is now not being kept. Would it not be helpful to the House for the noble Lord, Lord Bach, to ask my noble friend Lord McNally for his comment on that?

[Lord Bach]

That would be a fair question to the noble Lord, Lord McNally, who has had every opportunity to answer it and has chosen not to.