---

Compensation Bill [HL]

If I had been a bit more organised a couple of days ago I would have added my name to all the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, so in his absence I would be delighted to say a few words on them. This amendment is very important. The concept that it is at the discretion of the court to ignore the material in Clause 1 is not a very satisfactory one at all; it must take these things into account, or how can there be a defence? If the court decides not to take them into account, what do you do about it? I do not know enough about the legal procedure, but it would introduce a large degree of certainty if someone knew that the court would have to take these things into account and it was not at its discretion to ignore it. I shall say this briefly, as I shall speak about it further in the clause stand part debate, but I disagreed entirely with the question that noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, asked about whether we should have Clause 1. I shall really only be taking part in discussion of that clause, because to me that is the most important aspect. As for the rest of my remarks about why I believe that to be so, I shall wait until we have dealt with the amendments before making a very short speech in the clause stand part debate.