Lord Deben (Con)

I think it perfectly right for the noble Baroness to have intervened because I referred to her, and I apologise. I want the noble and learned Lord proposing the Bill to face three issues that are centred around these amendments—which I am dealing with, I say to the Whip. These amendments are trying to meet the genuine concerns of people who are not necessarily opposed to the Bill. They want to make sure that this key person knows what his or her job is, is appointed in a way the public can have confidence in, and is not the harbinger of what has been called mission creep. Those are three very simple things to ask for. This is the thing that really worries me. I say this directly to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer. I cannot understand why, at the beginning of the Bill’s passage, he did not say, “First, we know that there is a problem that it used to be thought this Bill had a judicial element to it and it does not now, and I am prepared to look at how to change that. Secondly, we know that the professional bodies have real concerns, and I am going to present my answers to those. Thirdly, I know that there is much in this Bill that is not specific enough, which is why the Select Committees have said it is inappropriate and unacceptable in its present form, and I will put those things right”. Had he said those three things, we would have been a long way forward with the Bill. Therefore, the Bill is being held up not by filibustering but by the fact that the people who have put it forward are so determined that it will pass that they are not willing, it seems to me, to listen to reasonable comments—even from people who have restrained themselves from entering into the bear garden they have managed to stir up in the media.