§ 10 p.m.
§ Read a third time.
§ Clause 1 [Power to make control orders]:
§ Lord Falconer of Thorotonmoved Amendment No. 1:
Page 1, line 9, leave out "the Secretary of State or (as the case may be)The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, in speaking to Amendment No. 1, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 2, 3 and 4. Amendment No. 1 is a tidying up amendment. It removes a reference to the Secretary of State imposing obligations on the 725 individual. That is no longer appropriate in the light of amendments which provide for all orders to be made by the courts.
Amendment No. 2 corrects a grammatical error which had crept in. It removes a second redundant reference to "the court" in the same line.
Amendment No. 3 removes Clause 10, which deals with appeal rights to the courts against decisions by the Secretary of State in making non-derogating orders. The clause is now inconsistent with the other provisions in the Bill in the light of the House's decision that non-derogating control orders should be made by the courts. I regret that this amendment was not moved on Report. It should have been.
On Amendment No. 4, the Bill currently provides for a right of appeal from the Secretary of State's decision to modify a derogating control order. However, following the amendments made by the Government to provide that the court should make derogating control orders, this provision is redundant. I apologise for not moving the amendment as intended on Report. I beg to move.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 7 [Modification, notification and proof of orders etc.]:
§ Lord Falconer of Thorotonmoved Amendment No. 2:
Page 9, line 4, leave out "or the courtOn Question, amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 10 [Appeals relating to non-derogating control orders]:
§ Lord Falconer of Thorotonmoved Amendment No. 3:
Leave out Clause 10On Question, amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 11 [Appeals relating to derogating control orders]:
§ Lord Falconer of Thorotonmoved Amendment No. 4:
Leave out Clause 11726 On Question, amendment agreed to.
§ Baroness Scotland of AsthalMy Lords, I beg to move that this Bill do now pass.
Moved, That the Bill do now pass.—(Baroness Scotland of Asthal.)
§ Lord RoperMy Lords, I do not want to detain the House for too long. We have had very useful debates. We could not have had those debates if our Public Bill Office had not been so efficient in producing the papers for us. I believe that we should refer to that before we agree the Motion.
§ Lord KingslandMy Lords, I endorse everything that has just been said by the Chief Whip from the Liberal Democrat Benches.
We undertook, at the beginning of the procedure as an opposition, to use our best endeavours to deliver the Bill to the Government by Tuesday night. We have done so. It may not be quite the same Bill as the one that arrived in your Lordships' House—indeed, we believe it to be a better Bill than the one that arrived a few days ago.
We now entrust the Bill to another place in full confidence that the amendments which have been tabled, and successfully won, will remain on its face.
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy Lords, I wish to say three things. First, I entirely endorse what the noble Lord, Lord Roper, said about the Public Bill Office, which has done a fantastic job. Secondly, it has been an incredibly testing experience for everybody in this House —as it has also been for all the officials, from the Home Office and the Department for Constitutional Affairs, who have done an absolutely fantastic job despite all the pressure that they were put under. Thirdly, whatever our disagreements over the content of the Bill, it has been a most civilised debate in this House. I am grateful to both opposition parties for achieving that; I thank them very much.
On Question, Bill passed, and returned to the Commons with amendments.
House adjourned at five minutes past ten o'clock.