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Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

I appreciate the points that have been made. I think I can answer most of them, but I shall certainly not be able to answer some of them satisfactorily. It is distressing that, by and large, in the current circumstances—direct rule with an Assembly that is suspended and that may not exist—Northern Ireland will always be behind the legislative progress and reform in the rest of the UK unless we actually start to legislate for Northern Ireland when we legislate for England and Wales—in the main, we do not do Scottish legislation any more. There is an incredible reluctance to do that for Northern Ireland, simply because of its history, but Northern Ireland should have its own devolved Administration. By the way—and I do not say this to excuse the delay—the two Section 58s are not word perfect because criminal law in Northern Ireland is slightly different from that in England and Wales. I may be wrong, but I think Section 58 was imported on a free vote in the House. I do not blame the noble Baroness. Indeed, I would do the same myself; I would use every possible parliamentary avenue to fight the other battles that I had lost and to try to undermine those to come back. She is quite right to do that. However, Parliament decided the substance of Section 58 on a free vote, and it was not a complete ban. Whatever our individual views, Parliament took that decision, and we have tried to implement it. The delay is a difficulty.