Member

I am grateful for the support from the noble Earl the convenor for some of the propositions I put forward. As I said to the noble Baroness the Leader, I did not expect anybody to respond immediately, and I know that the noble Earl will probably want to reflect on them as well. He made a simple human point that I made. Whether you have the view that “We have won now, and now we can get rid of them”, or whether you think that there is still value in keeping people here, these are human beings. These are our friends and our colleagues, these are great public servants and I think we owe it to our friends and colleagues to come to a clear decision, a clear approach about their future, and not wait for months and months until this Bill may become law. I hope we can bring greater clarity in a shorter period than some have suggested, and I think that was a very constructive point from the noble Earl.