Derek McDowell (Labour)

I will not detain the House because we want to process all Stages quickly. A point which came through in the Second Stage discussion was that there is some concern about the system being worked in good faith by the Government and that the resources should be made available to the relevant committees. The Government will have to pay heed to this.

I mentioned during my earlier contribution that while on the sub-committee on secondary EU legislation some years ago I was struck by the huge volume of paperwork relating to EU legislation. The Minister referred to this in his speech. There is not the remotest doubt that unless additional facilities are provided to committees to sift through the draft legislation, to summarise it and to provide secretarial and other support to Members who want to get seriously involved, this legislation simply will not work and will remain no more than a pious aspiration.