Member

The second part of Amendment 24B would ensure that the Secretary of State, who will be aware as time goes by what sort of times are in practice necessary, spells it out. The Secretary of State can list the factors to be taken account of—because, otherwise, “reasonable time” is going to be meaningless. It does not have to be too definitive, but it is common in the courts to give examples and factors in legislation of what will be a reasonable time or reasonable practice, and so on. What is reasonable for the tribunal, when looking at all the other pressures, may be hopelessly too long for a body with premises that it cannot use. I ask the Minister in all seriousness to consider the practical aspects of this and how it might be made to work.