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European Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2009

I congratulate the noble Lord on managing to speak for four minutes on these four pages when his noble friend the Leader of the House managed to deal with 90 pages of Northern Ireland electoral amendment regulations in six minutes. Perhaps the Ministry of Justice could take a little advice from the Northern Ireland Office and keep things shorter in future. We are very grateful for the noble Lord’s apologies on behalf of himself and the department for failing to spot the errors. In the true spirit of the times, I apologise on behalf of the Opposition for our not spotting them when the regulations went through. However, the rectification seems perfectly straightforward and is set out in the explanatory note, and for that we are grateful. I am also grateful for the noble Lord’s saying that the department’s procedures did not work as they should have done. Should a further measure be required in future, we hope that the department will ensure that the procedures work as they should, and that such mistakes can be spotted earlier. I offer the Opposition’s full support for the regulations.