§ Mr. Michael Meadowcroft (Leeds, West)May I raise a point of order under Standing Order No. 69, Mr. Speaker, which relates to the procedure of a Bill that moves from Committee of the whole House directly into Report? You will be aware that yesterday we began the process of considering the Local Government Finance Bill. A certain amount of progress was made last night until about quarter to midnight. It will be accepted on both sides of the House that there was no excessive attempt to delay. As we approach the home straight there will be a sudden acceleration into the last batch of the amendments. Tomorrow, the Bill is due to have all its remaining stages considered. In total there are about 200 amendments and new clauses, including some highly complex Government amendments and one [...] long, complicated schedule.
It is difficult, if not well-nigh impossible, to go directly from a long Committee stage of the whole House, where lengthy amendments have been debated, and, presumably, disposed of in one way or another, to Report stage because we shall not be able to consider in detail what amendments to table on Report.
What is more, not only shall we not be able to consider the terms of any amendments satisfactorily, but the line numbers to which they relate in the Bill will not be available to us. Therefore, manuscript amendments will, presumably, be passed around, which are not properly related to the Bill or the amendments as passed, and the whole thing will be a mess. Moreover, you, Mr. Speaker, will have the problem of selecting the amendments, and that, again, will be extremely difficult.
The motion to proceed directly to the Report stage is a matter for the House, and as such is debatable. I should very much regret it if we wasted time tomorrow debating procedure rather than getting on with the Bill itself. Would it not be better, Mr. Speaker, for you to use your good offices to see whether it is possible to delay the Report stage so that we can have a satisfactory debate on the Bill as it will then stand?
§ Mr. SpeakerI thank the hon. Gentleman for giving me notice of that point. The hon. Gentleman has correctly quoted Standing Order No. 69. It is not a matter for me, but I am sure that what he has said will have been heard by the Leader of the House who is present and by others on the Front Bench.
§ The Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. John Biffen)indicated assent.