HC Deb 14 February 1978 vol 944 cc249-51

Ordered, That the Report 7th February of the Business Committee be now considered.—[Mr. Foot.]

Report considered accordingly.

Question, That this House doth agree with the Committee in their Resolution.—[Mr. Foot.]

put forthwith pursuant to Standing Order No. 43 (Business Committee), and agreed to.

Following is the report of the Business Committee: That of the three days which, under the Order [16th November] and the Resolution of the Business Committee agreed to by the House on 22nd November, are given to proceedings on Consideration and Third Reading, two shall be allotted to proceedings on consideration: and those proceedings shall be brought to a conclusion as follows—

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  1. (a) new Clauses and amendments to end of line 16 on page 38 [Clause 80(1)] at 7.30 p.m. on the second day; and
  2. (b) remainder at 11 p.m. on the second day.

Mr. Pym

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. My right hon. and hon. Friends decided not to vote against the business motion in order to save time, because we are constricted by the guillotine. However, I should point out that we think it completely wrong for the Government to arrange a motion of this kind, to give a re-run of a debate that lasted some hours in Committee, within the time allotted under the allocation of time motion. We think that if the Government wanted a re-run of a debate, to which they are entitled, they should have provided extra time. We think that it should not cut into the guillotine. The effect will be that a large number of matters will not have been discussed even at the end of Report.

I make that protest. In order to save time, we did not divide against the motion.