HC Deb 05 November 1952 vol 507 cc147-9

2.38 p.m.

The Lord Privy Seal (Mr. Harry Crookshank)

I beg to move, That—

  1. (1) save as provided in paragraphs (2) and (5) of this Order, Government Business shall have precedence at every Sitting for the remainder of the Session;
  2. (2) Public Bills, other than Government Bills, shall have precedence over Government Business on the following Fridays, namely, 28th November, 12th December, 30th January, 13th and 27th February, 13th and 27th March, 24th April, 8th May and 12th June;
  3. (3) on and after Friday, 27th March, Public Bills other than Government Bills shall be arranged on the Order Paper in the following order:—Consideration of Lords Amendments, Third Readings, Considerations of Report not already entered upon, adjourned Proceedings on Consideration, Bills in progress in Committee, Bills appointed for Committee, and Second Readings;
  4. (4) the ballot for unofficial Members' Bills shall be held on Thursday, 13th November, under arrangements to be made by Mr. Speaker, and the Bills shall be presented at the commencement of Public Business on Wednesday, 19th November;
  5. (5) unofficial Members' Notices of Motions and unofficial Members' Bills shall have precedence in that order over Government Business on the following Fridays, namely, 5th December, 23rd January, 6th and 20th February, 6th and 20th March, 17th April, 1st and 15th May and 19th June; and no Notices of Motions shall be handed in for any of these Fridays in anticipation of the ballots under paragraph (6) of this Order;
  6. (6) ballots for precedence of unofficial Members' Notices of Motions shall be held after Questions on the following Wednesdays, namely, 19th November, 17th December, 21st January, 4th and 18th February, 4th March, 1st, 15th and 29th April and 20th May; and
  7. (7) nothing in this Order shall prevent unofficial Members giving Notices of Motions for leave to bring in Bills under Standing Order No. 12 (Motions for leave to bring in Bills and nomination of Select Committees at commencement of Public Business) or presenting Bills under Standing Order No. 35 (Presentation or introduction and first reading) after the presentation of unofficial Members' Bills referred to in paragraph (4) of this Order has taken place.
In his speech yesterday, the Prime Minister informed the House that we proposed that Private Members should this year have the same facilities for Bills and Motions as they had last year. That, of course, is in accordance with the recommendation made by the Select Committee in 1946, and I hope that it will soon be the established custom and that we shall not have to make any particular reference to it.

If hon. Members will look at the Motion, they will see that there will be 10 Fridays for Private Members' Bills and 10 Fridays for Motions, taken alternatively. Of the Fridays for Private Bills, the first six will be for Second Readings and the last four for the later stages. Hon. Members will observe that the first of these Fridays is 28th November.

It is necessary to pass a Motion of this kind at once in order that the greatest possible time shall be available for hon. Members to prepare their Bills and also in order to make the way clear for other business. There is nothing new in comparison with last year's Motion, and we have retained in the Motion features which we thought were useful, for instance, giving a much longer period than used to be the case before the war. Then, as older hon. Members will recollect, action had to be taken almost at once in introducing a Bill and decisions had to be taken very quickly. Last year we tried the experiment of having a longer pause. By this Motion there will be a period of eight days from the day before the Ballot takes place. That will give hon. Members time to think. There is then a further period of six days between the Ballot and the day of presenting the Bill, which gives time for hon. Members to see who will support their proposals.

The book for the Ballot on Bills will be placed in the "No" Lobby on Tuesday, 11th November and Wednesday, 12th November. The first Ballot for Motions will take place in the House on Wednesday, 19th November. That will be for Friday, 5th December. As soon as the various balloted Bills have been presented, the road will be clear to any hon. Member who wishes to make use of the opportunity for the presentation of Bills either in the ordinary way by handing them in at the Table or under the Ten-Minute Rule.

I do not think there is anything more I need say. This procedure is on the lines of last year's that proved satisfactory, and which led to the passing of some useful legislation initiated by Private Members.

Mr. Ede (South Shields)

We welcome the Motion and its form. I think that everyone can feel that last year the arrangements worked very satisfactorily—except, perhaps, that on occasions there were Fridays when Divisions took place which did not indicate a very large attendance of Members interested in the business. I think it would probably be desirable that there should not be a repetition of that this year, or some Private Members' business may very well fall into some contempt amongst the public outside. Apart from that, we welcome the Motion.

I notice that 19th December is not included in this Motion, although in the list of the order in which Questions could be put it appeared that somebody had expected that the House would sit until 24th December. I shall not press the right hon. Gentleman at this stage to say anything on that point, but I gather that at the moment 19th December is not among the days Private Members need expect to have.

Mr. Crookshank

Of course, I cannot go into matters of that kind. We set out the days which we suggest are suitable for Private Members. I am glad to hear from the right hon. Gentleman that they are acceptable to him. I am quite sure the House will appreciate that he has resumed his lecturing of us, telling us to be better boys on Fridays in future. It may have been that on some occasions the House was rather thin, but I do not know that it lies with anyone of us to complain of what others do on Private Members' days.

Question put, and agreed to.