HC Deb 24 July 1974 vol 877 cc1740-2

Lords amendment: In page 12, line 23, at end insert— ("(3A) The Corporation shall, after consultation with the committee established under section 14 below, establish criteria which should be satisfied by a housing association seeking registration, and may from time to time, after such consultation, vary those criteria.").

Motion made, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.—[Mr. Freeson.]

Mr. Speaker

The Question is, That this House doth agree—

Mr. William Molloy (Ealing, North)

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is not it incumbent upon the hon. Member for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles (Mr. Steel) to tell the House what it is to which he objects? The hon. Gentleman wants to vote on—

Mr. Speaker

Order. We had better get on.

Mr. Pardoe

Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is not—

Mr. Speaker

No. I am putting the Question on the first amendment.

Question put:—

The House proceeded to a Division—

Mr. Pardoe (seated and covered)

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. We have not seen what these amendments are—[Interruption.] It is making a farce of Parliament—[Interruption.]—

Mr. Speaker

Order. I must be allowed to listen to the point of order.

Mr. Pardoe

We have not seen what these amendments are. If they were in the Vote Office, they were not there until a few minutes ago. It is making a total farce of parliamentary democracy, Mr. Speaker, if you allow this House to consider amendments which hon. Members have not even been able to read. You are allowing a charade of Parliament if you allow this procedure to be followed.

Mr. Speaker

Order. The Question is, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

Question put and agreed to.

Mr. Speaker

Dealing with the point of order raised by the hon. Member for Cornwall, North (Mr. Pardoe), I really hope that this House will try to deal with these matters seriously—

Mr. Pardoe

How can we?

Mr. Speaker

Order. There have been great difficulties, and the Chair has to try to help the House. I have been consulted about these matters throughout the day. I have done my best to ensure that the House had the greatest time possible to consider them.

I do not say that the hon. Member for Cornwall, North meant to be grossly offensive, but he made a severe criticism of the Chair. However, I understand the difficulty if hon. Members have had no notice at all of these amendments.

If it will help the House, what I am prepared to do is to have a short suspension to allow hon. Members to look at the amendments and to clear up the situation. Therefore, I suspend the sitting for 20 minutes.

10.34 p.m.

Sitting suspended.

On resuming—

10.54 p.m.

Mr. Edward Short

I realise that there is a difficulty here, Mr. Speaker. I have checked now and I find that the amend- ments were not received in the Vote Office until 10.10 p.m. The subject was on the Order Paper, and the House did agree to consider them this evening. However, they were not received until 10.10 p.m. and were not seen by the Liberal Party or the Scottish National Party because those parties were not represented on the Standing Committee. That is an error, and I very much regret it. In view of this difficulty, I beg to move, That further consideration of the Lords amendments be now adjourned.

I suggest that we should deal with them tomorrow.

Mr. David Steel

I thank the right hon. Gentleman. It would have been unreasonable to pass about 100 Lords amendments in 10 minutes. We shall now see them on the Order Paper and they will be duly considered.

Mr. Graham Page

May I from the back benches thank the Leader of the House? He has preserved the rights of back benchers. We were deprived of an opportunity of looking at these matters, which we should have debated in the House, and the right hon. Gentleman has set a good precedent in the protection of the rights of back benchers.

Question put and agreed to.

Lords amendments to be further considered tomorrow.