REFERENDUM BILL (Hansard, 24 April 1975)

Mr. Speaker
The House will doubtless have noted that, despite the short time available, it has been possible to reprint the Referendum Bill, incorporating the amendments which were made in Committee. I am sure that Members would wish me to congratulate St. Stephen's Parliamentary Press on this achievement—[HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."]—and, indeed, others whom it is not customary for the Chair to mention but who I think had a great deal to do with this.
The reprinted Bill was not, of course, in existence when the amendments handed in for Report were sent to the printer at a late hour last night, and the page and line references in the amendment list published this morning therefore inevitably relate to the old Bill. A new xeroxed typewritten copy of the amendment list has accordingly been produced, giving the correct page and line references to the new Bill, and is available in the Vote Office.
The texts of the amendments and their numbers are, of course, the same in both documents.

§ Mr. John Peyton (Yeovil)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. May I briefly thank you for making that statement and endorse your expressions of thanks to all those who have made such efforts and acted so quickly for the convenience of the House?

§ The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Edward Short)
May I associate myself with what the right hon. Gentleman has said? St. Stephen's Press gets a lot of bricks thrown at it. It is nice to hear it congratulated. We are also grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for your unusual and very welcome gesture from the Chair.

§ Sir David Renton (Huntingdonshire)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I join in the thanks which you have expressed and which have been expressed to you. However, may I respectfully point out 1771 that even on the roneoed copy the same mistake has been made in each of five amendments. It is a small mistake, but one which, if not taken notice of now, could lead to confusion later. The mistake occurs in Amendments Nos. 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7. In each case there is a reference to subsection (3) of Section 2 of the Bill, but it should in each case be subsection (4)
I do not blame anybody, for the very reason that you gave, Mr. Speaker. The Officers of the House have done a splendid job. However, the mistake indicates what great difficulties we are in when the Report stage follows the day after the completion of the Committee stage.
I have a further point of order, and I hope that I am not premature in raising it, but it is a matter for the Chair. I have your provisional selection of amendments, but it is not quite clear which amendments in the fourth group you will select for a Division. If you could indicate that, it would be of assistance to the House.

Mr. Speaker
Note will have been taken of the right hon. and learned Gentleman's first point. I have not yet made up my mind on his second point, but my intention was that certainly Amendment No. 4 should be voted upon. As to whether any others should be selected for Division, I should prefer to wait and see.

§ Mr. Michael English (Nottingham, West)
Further to that point of order. Mr. Speaker. Have you had time to consider the representations I made to you. through your advisers, regarding my Amendment No. 9, which was designed simply to carry out the spirit of what the Committee decided last night?
The other point I should like to raise is that where you have mine and another hon. Member's manuscript amendment taken together, would it be possible, if necessary, to have separate Divisions?

Mr. Speaker
With regard to the first point, my selection is a provisional one and I shall consider the matter further. With regard to the second point, I shall also deal with that situation when it arises.

§ Mr. Peter Emery (Honiton)
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I did give 1772 you notice, but I wondered whether it might be possible at this stage for consideration to be given to the situation that arises when the House finds itself in the massive difficulty of having to finish a Bill late at night and then consider amendments which it has to make sense of by this time the next day. I wondered whether representations might be made, through you, to the Leader of the House for this matter to be considered by the Procedure Committee so that it only arose in the most extreme emergency.

Mr. Speaker
Whether the terms of reference of the Procedure Committee are enlarged is a matter not for me but for the House as a whole. I am sure that note will be taken of the hon. Member's point.