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Pre-legislative Scrutiny

Yes, my Lords, I was going to come to that. In fact, I have gone over my time. I do not know whether the House is happy for me to do that. My understanding is that pre-legislative scrutiny is the responsibility of the business managers in the two Houses. The Leader of the House of Commons is also chair of L Cabinet Committee—the Cabinet committee that all Ministers are in fear of, because it is in charge of the legislative programme. Therefore, it is L Cabinet Committee that must clear legislation. Noble Lords may not believe it, but it keeps a very tight rein and close eye on Ministers preparing Bills and on the legislative process. I certainly have the scars on my back to prove it. A number of other questions were raised. I know that there is an issue about statistics and how they should be measured. I hope that officials from government may meet the officials who service the noble Lord’s committee to see whether there can be further discussion about statistics. Clearly, there is a question about how you measure pre-legislative scrutiny. On the House of Lords White Paper, the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, asked on Monday whether the intention was to publish draft clauses. The Government have signalled that, depending on the outcome of the White Paper deliberations, it may be possible to publish draft clauses. How should they be measured in terms of whether they are considered to constitute a Bill? There are some interesting matters that we might discuss. On the question about my noble friend Lady Amos, when she was Leader of the House, and the publication of the information for which the noble Lord asked, the noble Lord will have read the response from my noble friend. I am happy to talk to my noble friend Lady Ashton about what information the Government might publish that would be of help to the House and the committee. The Government want to be co-operative in this matter. Let me reiterate by, first, thanking the noble Lord and his committee for their invaluable report. Despite what may be perceived as the negativity of the response, I hope that he will not see it in that way. The Government remain committed to pre-legislative scrutiny. There is clearly a debate between us as to the extent of pre-legislative scrutiny and the criteria under which the Government decide which Bills are appropriate for it. I have no doubt that we will continue to have that debate. I also suspect that the work that will now take place on post-legislative scrutiny will throw up some interesting conclusions, which will be of help in improving the legislative process as a whole. I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Norton, for his championing of post-legislative scrutiny, which I believe offers much hope for the future. In the mean time, I assure noble Lords that the Government will continue to look with favour on pre-legislative scrutiny and will continue to evaluate Bills to ensure that, where appropriate, they will be considered for that process.