HC Deb 13 March 1974 vol 870 cc191-2

2.38 p.m.

The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Edward Short)

I beg to move, That Standing Order No. 18 shall have effect for this Session with the following modifications, namely:—

  1. (a) in paragraph (1), for the reference to twenty-nine days there shall be substituted a reference to fourteen days;
  2. (b) paragraph (6) shall cease to have effect;
  3. (c) for paragraph (7) there shall be substituted:
'(7) On the first allotted day any of the following numbers or total amounts may be put down for consideration:
  1. (a) any vote relating to numbers for defence services for the coming financial year;
  2. (b) all supplementary estimates for civil departments for the current financial year; and
  3. (c) all supplementary estimates for defence services for the current financial year;
and Mr. Speaker shall put the questions set out in paragraph (11) of this order'. (d) in paragraph (8), at the end of line 132, there shall be inserted— '(c) any excess votes for civil departments, provided that the Committee of Public Accounts shall have reported that they see no objection to the sums necessary being provided by excess vote; and (d) any excess votes for defence services, provided that the Committee of Public Accounts shall have reported that they see no objection to the sums necessary being provided by excess vote;' and (e) in paragraph (11), in lines 149 to 151, the words 'that shall have been put down for consideration on at least one previous allotted day' shall be omitted. Under Standing Order No. 18 the Government are bound to provide 29 Supply Days between the start of the Session in November and 5th August. That works out at roughly one Supply Day per week. The motion proposes that there should be 14 Supply Days in the period between now and the Summer Recess. On present assumptions, that is also likely to provide about one Supply Day per week. I hope that the House will agree that this is reasonable.

The rest of the provisions in the motion make the necessary adjustments to the Standing Order to take account of the late start of this Session.

On the assumption that the Session extends over to the next year beyond the Summer Recess, I undertake to the House to propose further Supply Days in the autumn.

Question put and agreed to.