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House of Lords Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: Before Clause 1, insert the following new Clause— ““PART A1 The Senate ““The Senate (1) The second chamber of the United Kingdom Parliament shall be called the Senate. (2) Members of the Senate shall be called senators.”” The noble Earl said: In moving Amendment No. 1, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 2, 13, 38, 69, 72, 73, 75, 81, 91, 96, 98, 104, 106, 114, 119, 134, 154, 156, 159, 160, 164, 166, 170, 172, 177, 179, 180 and 193. First, I must apologise to the noble Lord, Lord Steel of Aikwood, for not being in my place to speak at Second Reading. Like him, I live in Scotland, but a little bit further north than he does. I was not able to be in the Chamber that afternoon. Secondly, I want to pose a question to the Government. Given that this has been a much-discussed subject—there are government proposals; a cross-party group meeting; the Public Administration Committee’s report; and a huge amount of other business that we always say we do not have time for—will the Minister confirm that this Bill is being treated in accordance with the principles and usual procedures of this House and that there is not a special government procedure for this Bill? Will he also confirm, as he did at Second Reading, that there is a binding commitment to the retention of hereditary Peers, as far as the Government are concerned? Will he further confirm that the Government will not be giving time to this Bill, should we not get to the end of the Committee stage today?