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Parliamentary Standards Bill

My Lords, I support what has been said about this amendment. One thing that none of us would want to see is the courts involved in the activities of IPSA except in the most exceptional circumstances. It is undoubtedly the case that if the courts were involved, they would say that IPSA was under an obligation to be fair. That is self-evident under the normal rules that the courts require on application for judicial review. But in these special circumstances, we want to avoid the matter being in any doubt so far as IPSA is concerned. The way to avoid that doubt is by having it clearly stated in the Bill that fairness is required.