David Norris (Independent)

Yes, any of those people. This House should be given the reasons for it and the advices given to the Minister of State, who is plainly troubled by it.

On other far less significant amendments the Minister is prepared to give a commitment to the House that he will consider them again and take further advice. It is significant that he made no such offer to the House on this amendment. His position was absolute from the beginning and it is not reflective of his general humane concern for issues of human rights, which are known to Members on both sides of the House. I can tell the Minister of State that there are a number of people on the Government benches who are fairly embarrassed by this. Will the Minister of State address those points?