§ 3.4 p.m.
§ Lord GrocottMy Lords, with permission, I have two brief statements about today's business. First, as noble Lords will have seen on the annunciator, a Statement on the Equitable Life inquiry will be repeated by my noble friend Lord McIntosh later this afternoon. It will come at some time after 4.30 p.m. Secondly, I have done the arithmetic on today's Second Reading debate. I admit that meeting the target time of 10 p.m. may be tricky. Allowing a little flexibility, I can tell your Lordships that if all noble Lords speak for about eight minutes we would still get to any vote, should there be a vote, at around 11 p.m., even allowing for the Statement. Putting this in the most courteous possible way, of the 45 noble Lords on the list for today's debate, 23 noble Lords also took part in the debate on a very similar subject on Thursday, 12 February. It may be that a balancing act could take place between those who have already given us the benefit of their wisdom and those who are fresh.