---

Asylum: EUC Report

My Lords, I should like to address a few words to the procedural implications of what we are doing for the first time tonight, and then a few words on the actual issues under consideration in the directives. Membership of your Lordships’ House gives one many interests and pleasures, not the least of which is the opportunity to serve under the chairmanship of my noble friend Lord Jopling, whose felicitous introduction to the subject tonight has illuminated the debate very well indeed. Another important and fascinating opportunity for me has been to be part of the Lord Speaker’s outreach programme. It enables one to visit groups and many schools to discuss and explain the role of your Lordships’ House. I make three or four visits a year to maybe a couple of schools each day, and I never fail to learn something from those events. They are like a mirror held up in which you can see reflected the House of which we are all a part. I mention this because too often the reflection is formed by the single impression of the House at State Opening—predominantly elderly white males involved in a ceremony that seems, in the graphic words of a young man in Birmingham before Christmas, to belong to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. One is able to put them straight about the diverse make-up of the House—plenty of women and representatives of religious and ethnic minorities—and also to explain the way that the procedures of your Lordships’ House have evolved, and continue to evolve, to reflect the changing nature of our society, and to say that in many ways, despite appearances to the contrary, it is arguable that the House has moved more with the times than the other place. But, and it is a very big but, one is always conscious that, to be seen to be relevant by the generation that blogs and twitters, we need constantly to re-examine the efficacy of our procedures. I do not for a moment recommend a rolling programme of change for its own sake, but there is a need for a continued, careful, considered and searching analysis of how the House can carry out its tasks more effectively. Earlier this year I had the privilege of taking part in the first Bill under another new procedure, that introduced for Law Commission Bills, when we considered the Perpetuities and Accumulations Bill. Our ability to hold evidence sessions during the passage of the Bill with the Minister—on that occasion the noble Lord, Lord Bach—present was, in my judgment, a much better way of getting good legislation on to the statute book. It was a mixture of technical, expert and political views received and acknowledged before the jelly had set. That is why I think the procedure we are using for the first time tonight is so important, because this procedure offers the chance to make views known before the jelly has set, and to do so formally on the Floor of the House, as we are doing this evening. I have to join the noble Lord, Lord Roper, and my noble friend Lord Jopling in the quibble; because to be of value, debates such as this one need to be held in time to influence the Government’s thinking. As the noble Lord, Lord Roper, has told us, the deadline for a decision on whether to opt in must be taken before 23 January, which my diary tells me is Saturday week, and we are at Tuesday evening now. If we are going to implement this new approach effectively in the future, the Government need to find time earlier in the three-month process or else the approach will be stillborn. To change my metaphor swiftly, I hope that when the Minister comes to wind up he will tell us whether this particular horse has bolted. This takes me to my final comment about the procedure. I said earlier that reforms to your Lordships’ House needed to be careful and considered. I understand that the Procedure Committee will consider this reform again at a meeting on 2 February. I very much hope that they will endorse it, but—again it is a big but—it is for that committee to take the final decisions, because it can see the whole picture. It sees the whole canvas, not just the corner of the canvas that we are discussing this evening. Only with its endorsement are we likely to carry the whole House with us on this important step. I turn briefly to the specifics under review. It must surely be critical that the Government find a way to align the legal views of the Home Office and the Commission on the interrelationships between these two sets of directives, and indeed future sets. The most urgent policy objective must be to reach agreement on whether the second directive does or does not repeal the first. Without this cornerstone agreement, it is hard to see how further useful discussion can take place on the other issues raised by the directives themselves. I certainly accept some of the concerns that the Government have expressed, particularly those in respect of the Asylum Procedures Directive. How to give the most effective voice to these concerns on a European stage is an important issue. I look forward to hearing from the Minister whether he believes that these concerns can best be addressed by withdrawal, as my noble friend Lord Jopling said, which failure to opt in would represent, or by negotiation from within. His summary of that decision will be very interesting, and I am sure the whole House awaits it with eager anticipation. The approach we are using for the first time tonight is an important one, and I hope the Procedure Committee and then the whole House will endorse its use. Inter alia, it will provide a useful way for the Government to get out of the knots into which they have tied themselves on this important issue.