SITTINGS OF THE HOUSE (Hansard, 15 August 1945)

§ The Lord President of the Council (Mr. Herbert Morrison)

I beg to move, That during the remainder of the present Session, until the House otherwise order: (1) Standing Orders Nos. 1, 6, 7, 3 and 14 shall have effect as if, for any reference to a time mentioned in the first column of the following table there were substituted a reference to the time respectively mentioned in the second column of that table:

TABLE
Time mentioned in Standing Orders.	Time to be substituted.
2.45 P.m.	2.15 p.m.
3.00 p.m.	2.30 p.m.
345 P.m.	3.15 p.m.
7.30 p.m.	6.15 p.m.
9.30 p.m.	7.45 p.m.
10.00 p.m.	8.15 p.m.
11.00 p.m.	9.15 P.m.
11.30 p.m.	9.45 P.m.

(2) The following Order shall be substituted for Standing Order No. 2: 2. 'The House shall meet on Fridays at 11 a.m. for private business, petitions, orders of the day and notices of motion. Standing Order No. 1 (as amended by this or any other Order) shall apply to the sittings on Fridays with the omission of paragraph (1) thereof and with the substitution of references to 4 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. for references to 9.15 p.m. and 9.45 p. m' (3) Standing Order No. 25 shall apply:

(a) to sittings on days other than Fridays, with the substitution of references to half past seven and half-past eight for the references to a quarter past eight and a quarter past nine; and
(b) to sittings on Fridays, with the substitution of references to a quarter past one and a quarter past two for the references to a quarter past eight and a quarter past nine."

This is the Motion, of which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister gave notice earlier, relating to changes in the Sittings of the House which are to be made in the regular Standing Orders. What we are doing is to continue the practice which operated in the House during the last Parliament for some time, and the provisions of the Motion are very simple We are proposing that on ordinary days, that is, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the House should 63 meet at 2.15 and sit until 9.15, and, allowing half-an-hour for the Adjournment, until 9.45; and on Fridays meet at 11 a.m. and sit until 4 or 4.30 p.m. These hours were in operation during the latter period of the last Parliament. They were calculated to meet the convenience of Members as far as that could be ascertained, and they had to take account, of course, of the limited travelling facilities after 10 o'clock at night. Broadly speaking, those travelling facilities still remain a matter of some difficulty. It is necessary to pass 64 the Motion to-day, so that it may come into operation to-morrow, and I hope it will commend itself to the House generally as it did on the previous occasion.