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Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I share the views expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Howell, on interoperability and I go along with everything he said. It seems clear to all of us who followed the convention process that if we had stuck in the UN route which required unanimity, we would not now have a convention banning cluster munitions. Of course, in those circumstances, interoperability would not have arisen, but there would not have been a ban. In order to obtain the ban, the Government—correctly, in my view, and with a little encouragement from others of us—went down this other route which inevitably and inescapably raises the issue of interoperability. You cannot avoid that. The only problem I have with the noble Lord, Lord Howell, is that I cannot for the life of me see how his amendment to leave Clause 1 out of the Bill assists his argument. I hope that he will not insist on it because, although I happen to share exactly the views he has expressed, I came to the opposite conclusion.