§ 2.36 p.m.
§ The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Edward Short)I beg to move,
That, (1) Standing Order No. 6 (Precedence of government business shall have effect for this Session with the following modifications, namely:—In paragraph (2) the word 'five' shall be substituted for the word 'ten' in line 5; in paragraph (3) the word 'fourth' shall be substituted for the word 'seventh' in line 8; in paragraph (4) the word 'fourth' shall be substituted for the word 'fifth' in line 26; in paragraph (5) the word 'four' shall be substituted for the word 'ten' in line 30; in paragraph (6) the word 'three' shall be substituted for the word 'four' in line 33; and paragraph (8) shall not apply, and until after Wednesday, 3rd April, no private Member shall give notice of a motion for leave to bring in a Bill under Standing Order No. 13 (Motion for leave to bring in bills and nomination of select committees at commencement of public business) or for presenting a bill under Standing Order No. 37 (Presentation and first reading);(2) Private Members' Bills shall have precedence over Government business on Friday 3rd May, Friday 10th May, Friday 17th May, Friday 21st June and Friday 28th June;190(3) Private Members' Notices of Motions shall have precedence over Government business on Friday 5th April, Friday 14th June, Friday 5th July and Friday 12th July, and ballots for these Notices shall be held after Questions on Wednesday 20th March, Wednesday 22nd May, Wednesday 19th June and Wednesday 26th June;(4) On Monday 8th April, Monday 20th May and Monday 8th July, Private Members' Notices of Motions shall have precedence until Seven o'clock and ballots for these Notices shall be held after Questions on Thursday 21st March, Thursday 2nd May and Thursday 20th June;(5) No Notice of Motion shall be handed in for any of the days on which Private Members' Notices have precedence under this Order in anticipation of the ballot for that day.My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister told the House yesterday that I would be making proposals about private Members' time. In accordance with the arrangements made in the last Parliament the Government would have been expected to propose nine private Members' days between now and the Summer Recess. The motion proposes that there shall be 10½ private Members' days, of which five will be for Bills and five and a half for motions. I hope that the House will agree with me that this allocation is reasonable.It makes the maximum use of the Fridays which on present assumptions are likely to be available before the Summer Recess.
The five Bill days would all be on Fridays. The House will probably find it convenient to devote three of those days to Second Readings and two to remaining stages and any Lords amendments. The motion provides for that. The Ballot for Bills will be on Thursday 21st March, and presentation of Private Members' Bills will be on the fourth Wednesday. 3rd April.
Of the five and a half motion days four will be taken on Fridays and the remaining one and a half will be taken in half days on other days.
On the assumption that the Session extends over into next year I shall undertake to the House to propose further private Member's time in the autumn. I hope that the House will find these arrangements satisfactory, and I apologise to the House for my voice.
§ Question put and agreed to.