Mr. Tom Flynn:

The difficulty is that this is an area of law that is highly technical and inherently complex. There are interactions with European law. The draft Bill needs to be considered very carefully. It is well worth spending a little extra time considering it in order to ensure that we get it right rather than having piecemeal adjournments in respect of it.

The introduction of any new statutory provisions, even if good and well-intentioned, raises the possibility of actions before the courts as people try to understand what they mean. It is always the case that statutory provisions have unintended consequences. We have already highlighted some statutory provisions that we believe will simply give rise to additional litigation and, in fact, are not a step forward. It may be counterintuitive for lawyers to be highlighting proposed statutory provisions on the grounds that they encourage litigation, but we think that is not unreasonable for us to do so.