§ Order read for resuming adjourned debate on Second Reading [27 April].
§ Mr. PavittOn a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. This is a different point of order. I quite understand that, on all the previous points of order, you were right to advise hon. Members that these matters are usually for the Select Committee on Procedure, but I wish to seek your advice. We have now seen 57 Bills pass before the House. As you will know from your experience, the first Friday in July is well known as the slaughter of the innocents because a great many Bills come forward for decision. Is not the manner in which their Second Reading debates are arranged a matter to be dealt with through the usual channels—with the Leader of the House—rather than through the procedures of the House? By what means can a Back Bencher have some influence to prevent the nonsense of 57 Bills being dealt with on the first Friday in July, knowing very well that they will all be slaughtered by the Government Whips or others?
Mr. Deputy SpeakerThe hon. Gentleman knows that the allocation of time is governed by Standing Orders. I am sure that, as an experienced Member, he will have a good deal of influence if he addresses his remarks to the Front Benches.
§ Mr. Donald Stewart (Western Isles)Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. We have had 57 Bills today and I hazard a guess that the majority of them would be supported by the majority of hon. Members on both sides of the House. [HON. MEMBERS: "Hear, hear."] I have some experience of private Members' Bills, having had 670 two myself, and I have seen the passage of others such as attempts to amend the Abortion Act, which were supported by the majority of hon. Members, and I have seen them getting nowhere. While one fully sympathises with your position—I agree that this is a matter for the Select Commitee on Procedure—is it not possible for a strong recommendation to be made to the Select Committee that this procedure ought to be changed in future, in the way suggested by several hon. Members today?
Mr. Deputy SpeakerAgain, I suggest that the best thing that the right hon. Gentleman can do is to put his point directly to the Select Committee on Procedure, which can then consider it.
§ Mr. JannerFurther to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. As this will probably qualify for inclusion in the "Guinness Book of Records" as the greatest slaughter in the shortest time that the House has achieved, can we have time on 26 October, by direction from the Chair, to discuss those matters which Back Benchers wish to raise and which are to come before the House on that date, which cannot then be removed by a sedentary shout from a Government Whip, whether with his feet on the Table or otherwise?
Mr. Deputy SpeakerThe hon. and learned Gentleman has been here long enough to know very well that the Chair has no control over such matters as the allocation of time. May I add in parenthesis that I am profoundly relieved that it does not?