Lord Kinnoull:

Thank you. I thank Deputy Richmond for those questions. I will make a brief factual response and then hand over to my colleagues. I should just say that as a committee we are balanced both politically and in our views on Brexit. The delegation before the committee today is also balanced in the same way. I will ask my colleagues when they speak for the first time to say which party they come from. I am non-affiliated. I came from the crossbench beforehand so I do not have a party.

The first part of Deputy Richmond's question was whether we had a response to our letter with nine questions of 18 September. The answer to that is we have not had a response yet. That is very rare and unusual because the Cabinet Office, in particular, is normally pretty good at responding. I suppose they are very difficult questions to answer. When we do have an answer I can assure the Deputy it will be made public immediately on our website.

Second, I will set out the factual background of the timings of the Bill. We have had the Second Reading and the regret motion, which I will ask my colleagues to comment on, but the amending Stages of the Bill are set down for seven days. We will have Committee and Report Stages and those seven days begin next Monday, 26 October, and finish on 23 November. I would expect the voting to happen in the latter part of those seven days on Report Stage. I think more than seven days will be required but there are a few extra days available within that timetable whereby we might see the process still end on 23 November.

In common, no doubt, with Ireland's procedure, at any time the Government could choose in amending Stages to bring forward government amendments to remove Part 5 of the Bill. I have no doubt that would form part of a package that represents a future relationship deal, so procedurally it would be very simple for them to excise Part 5 of the Bill, which is being seen as so difficult with the withdrawal agreement.

That said, I will hand over to my colleagues. Perhaps I will start by asking Lord Wood to take up the running.