§ 31. Mr. HainTo ask the Attorney-General if he will make a progress statement about his consultation on public interest immunity law. [19407]
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe Government will give careful consideration to all views received in response to the consultation.
§ Mr. HainIs not the truth that—as the Attorney-General's answers this afternoon have so far 20 shown—despite Scott's stinging criticism of his legal incompetence and abuses of public interest immunity law, and despite the huge constitutional issues exposed by the report, all he and the Government are doing about the report is a long grass job?
§ The Attorney-GeneralIt is clear that the hon. Gentleman has spent little or no time carefully reading the report.
§ Sir Ivan LawrenceWill my right hon. and learned Friend be a little less modest and self-restrained? Is it not absolutely clear that the Law Lords, who are higher than Lord Justice Scott, said that the Attorney-General's advice was totally right and that Lord Justice Scott was totally wrong?
§ The Attorney-GeneralI am grateful to my hon. and learned Friend. Lawyers can disagree, but my advice— as I have often told the House—was carefully researched and has been approved at the highest level by all the Law Lords who spoke in the debate and by the Master of the Rolls. I rest my case.