§ 72 Before Clause 62, insert the following new clause—
§ Speaker's Conference
§ (".—(1) For the purposes of this Act there may be appointed not less than six, nor more than twelve months after the first occasion on which the Assembly meets a Speaker's Conference, being a conference convened at the request of the Prime Minister and presided over by the Speaker of the House of Commons with the function of considering and making recommendations to the House of Commons relating to the appropriate number of Members of the House representing Scottish constituencies after the enactment of this Act.
§ (2) Those participating in the Conference shall be Members of the House of Commons invited to do so by the Speaker, who shall secure that the balance of parties in the House of Commons is reflected, so far as practicable, among the participants in the Conference.")
§ The Commons disagreed to the above Amendment for the following Reason:
§ 73 Because the convening of a Speaker's Conference is the concern solely of the House of Commons.
§ Lord McCLUSKEYI beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 72, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 73. As I said in our earlier debate, we have maintained throughout the devolution debates—and, indeed, before they began in Parliament—the commitment not to change the present level of representation 549 from Scotland, and indeed from Wales, as a consequence of devolution. Parliament will remain sovereign, able to legislate on all matters, including those to be devolved, and we have never accepted that the devolution proposals are flawed because of the continuing full participation of Scottish and Welsh Members in the business of another place. This question has been debated three times in the other place and defeated decisively on each occasion. Although the present new clause was not debated when the other place considered this House's Amendments, the official Opposition did not seek to divide the other place on the Government's proposal that the new clause should be disagreed with.
When this House debated the new clause, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Croy, argued that we should give the Members of another place a chance to look at the matter again. We have done this, and the other place has firmly indicated that it has made up its mind and does not wish to go over the ground again. This is not a matter on which we should seek again to lecture the democratically-elected Chamber, and I therefore trust that this House will accept the views of the other place, which no-one sought to oppose, and not insist upon the Amendment.
§ Moved, That this House doth not insist upon Amendment No. 72, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 73.—(Lord McCluskey.)
Lord CAMPBELL of CROYMy Lords, it is the normal procedure for a Speaker's Conference to consider matters of this kind, and your Lordships will recall that only recently a Speaker's Conference made recommendations on the representation of Northern Ireland—recommendations which the Government quite quickly accepted. So that is the normal procedure, and my noble friends and I, in putting this forward, have been able to give the other place an opportunity to consider this matter again. I do not think that it would be right for us to provide them with yet another opportunity because this is a matter which they have been able now to discuss; the guillotine did not cut this discussion out.
My Lords, we still believe that it would allay many apprehensions in different 550 parts of the United Kingdom when this new major constitutional change takes place, if the Bill is accepted at a referendum and if a new Assembly and Executive are established in Scotland. When that is being carried out, we think there will be many apprehensions in different parts of the country, and a Conference of this kind, considering the question of future representation, would, we think, be something which would allay those apprehensions. But there is no point, we think, in this matter being discussed again in another place, and therefore we have not put down a Motion.