That was in 1987. But the matter did not stop there. By the following year there were not merely three but five larger ones and since then there have been four or five in each year. So I think your Lordships will agree that, as an amending Chamber, your Lordships have a parliamentary responsibility to do all you can to eliminate unnecessary provisions which merely go to swell the statute book. Perhaps I may add this.
Secondary legislation runs to twice as much as the primary.
In fact, such is the volume that the Stationery Office has not managed to publish all the volumes of any year since 1995. For 1996 the first part of the year has been published. That is six volumes, so there are likely to be a dozen volumes in that year. Nothing has been published since. I do not think that in the end your Lordships will be concerned with the point of law, which in any case is not really a suitable subject for Division in the House.