§ Considered in Committee.
§ [SIR PAUL DEAN in the Chair.]
§ Clauses 1 to 7 agreed to.
§ Schedules I to 4 agreed to.
§ Bill reported, without amendment.
§ Order for Third Reading read.
9.15 pm§ The Solicitor-General (Sir Nicholas Lyell)I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.
Since this is a strange procedure that must be extremely odd to anyone watching on television or to anyone else not familiar with our proceedings, it is right to explain that we have now consolidated four Bills and brought into a modern and accessible form the general law on town and country planning and related matters. We want to express our thanks to the Law Commission and to the draftsmen for their excellent work in helping us to bring about that change.
§ Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North)On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. This is, as usual, a serious point of order.
Normally, when speaking in the Chamber it is not in order to refer to people sitting in the Strangers' Gallery. Any reference to them is specifically out of order. In the past few months, however, there has been a growing practice for hon. Members to refer to the effect that their speech or someone else's speech will have on television viewers. If it is not in order to refer to people sitting in the Galleries—in constitutional terms they are referred to as "Strangers"—logically it should also be out of order to refer to television cameras, television audiences or programmes. Such references are an intrusive influence on the running of the Chamber.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Paul Dean)The hon. Gentleman has raised an interesting point. He might like to ask the Select Committee on Televising of Proceedings of the House to consider it.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Bill read the Third time, and passed, without amendment.