Member

I raise that because I want to come on to how this mistake—to be generous to it—has lasted so long. By the way, I am going to ask a lot of questions, so if the Minister wishes to write to me I absolutely understand. Can he explain what the process is inside Whitehall for holding departments to account when things like this have gone badly wrong? I appreciate that in the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee report there is reference to the Home Office possibly doing an internal review. There is no detail about when that will happen, how long it will take or whether it will be published. Can the Minister inform the Grand Committee whether the Minister for Migration and Citizenship had been fully informed of all the background to this order prior to her confirming in the Explanatory Memorandum that it met the required standard? It is absolutely obvious that it does not. Frankly, it is a disgrace. Parliament has to be able to rely on frank Explanatory Memorandums, not ones that obfuscate, and I hope that parliamentarians were able to spot the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee report.