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Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill [HL]

The thrust of Amendment No. 4 is to seek to ensure that the experiment would take place only if each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set a date for participation, and one which would have to be before 25 October 2009, when the Act would expire. As the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, acknowledged, the wording of Amendment No. 4 would need to be changed if it is to be pursued, as the Bill already provides a date for Clause 5(2)(b). I was interested to hear the experience of the noble Lord in the earlier experiment of 1968–71. Since then there has been the 1989 Green Paper which showed a divergence of opinion on the issue, and the debate in 1996 on a Private Members’ Bill equally showed that those divisions were still there, with strong views on either side. A number of noble Lords have referred to the practical issues. Just think of living in one place and working in another, or having children going to school in two different locations and two different time zones, or business establishments in two different time zones, or living in one location with caring responsibilities in another. These are just some of the practical implications that would—