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Armed Forces Bill

The Minister’s reply contained no surprises in the sense that it restated the position as it is. The only area at which I will need to look further is my question whether the Government’s amendments have fully taken on board paragraph 26 to the 23rd report of Delegated Powers Regulatory Reform Committee, which recommends that the power in Clause 334(5) shall also be subject to the affirmative procedure, in that the amendment relates to paragraph (a) of that subsection. It may sound like a detail but these delegated powers are remarkably important, so we could perhaps discuss that and come back to it, particularly as the government amendments have re-jigged the way in which they have been presented at rather late notice, and I may not have caught all the subtleties of it.