Member

Very briefly, my noble friend Lord Lucas’s Clause 31 stand part notice is in this group. I am sure he and other noble Lords will speak to that and the other amendments in this group touching on aspects of the register. We are dealing with this slightly out of sequence, but Clause 31 is such a fundamental part of the discussion that I want to say a word about it now. I have doubts about Clause 31, and indeed much of Clauses 30 to 35, because they go to a fundamental problem with the Bill: its unspoken background belief—which I suspect is quite widely shared—that there is no aspect of life in this country that cannot, in principle, be regulated and improved by state action.