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Flood and Water Management Bill

I thank the Minister for his explanation, although obviously I support my noble friend’s amendment. As he will be aware, I am never very happy about secondary legislation and having to do everything through secondary legislation, so I am grateful that, in this case, he has returned with amendments. Perhaps I could also reply to the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, as the Minister started to speak before I could get to my feet and it seemed rude to interrupt him when he was in full flow. There is an important understanding in the House concerning statutory instruments. However, when we consider the procedures of the House, perhaps we could look at that aspect. As the Minister indicated, we can speak to a statutory instrument but we cannot alter it. Some of us feel very frustrated with secondary legislation because of the inadequacy of the original Act itself; one will have discussed a Bill, seen it become an Act and then later have to deal with the secondary legislation arising from it. Sometimes these things take years. It was only last week, I think, that we dealt with the Commons statutory instruments—