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Norwich and Norfolk (Structural Changes) Order 2010

My Lords, I shall not make a speech but ask the noble Lord one or two questions about a set of orders that we are not debating this evening, but that we should have been—those that relate to my home county of Suffolk. Suffolk has been considered alongside Devon and Norfolk right through this process, yet for some reason that is inexplicable to the people there, the Government decided that they would ignore the recommendations of the Boundary Committee and that Suffolk was to have a constitutional convention. Why has Suffolk been singled out in that way? Does he accept that it might have been sensible to use the approach of a constitutional convention for Suffolk at the start of the process three years ago, but it is not sensible to bolt it on at the end of a process that has cost Suffolk taxpayers many hundreds of thousands of pounds, significantly affected ability to recruit staff, and had a detrimental impact on ability to work in partnership? How does he think that Suffolk residents have benefited in any way from the process that we have had so far? Finally, has the noble Lord given any guidance to Suffolk on how the constitutional convention is to do its work and frame its deliberations? Is it to work on the Government’s original five criteria or add in the two new ones, or should it just exercise its imagination and think about some criteria that the Government might dream up between now and the report?