Can I thank the Member for those particular points? They are absolutely valid points and they've been made by a number of organisations within the legal profession, and we can put it this way: Parliament without the framework of the rule of law is effectively a dictatorship that is elected every five years. The rule of law is what sets the framework in which the exercise of power takes place. Now, that has always been my understanding of the way in which Parliament works and the importance of the rule of law. What has been proposed with regard to judicial review is basically a building on what was being proposed in legislation a year or two back, which was to allow Governments to act unlawfully, to allow Governments to actually breach their international obligations.

So, it is an issue that I had intended to discuss with Robert Buckland when he was Lord Chancellor. Unfortunately, my meeting was the day after he was sacked—not that it had any connection, the two. [Laughter.] But it is very concerning now that the new Lord Chancellor is making comments that indicate a reversal, I think, of the decision that had been taken by Robert Buckland after consultation. I will, in due course, be meeting with the Lord Chancellor, and I will make these points, but I have to express that these proposals, in conjunction with all those other pieces of legislation, in my view, collectively, are a significant undermining of civil liberties and democracy.