Parliamentary Hours (Hansard, 25 November 1991)

§ 41. Mr. Skinner
To ask the Lord President of the Council if he will make a statement on his proposals for changes in parliamentary hours of business.

§ The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. John MacGregor)
As the House knows, I have submitted a memorandum to the Select Committee on Sittings of the House, under the chairmanship of my right hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Jopling) and also appeared before the Committee to give oral evidence. In so doing, I was expressing my personal views, and not a collective view on behalf of the Government.
I am sure the whole House looks forward, as I do, with great interest to the Committee's recommendations.

§ Mr. Skinner
Is it not outrageous that a senior member of the Government is talking about a four-day week for Members of Parliament and suggesting at the same time a 626 48-hour week for miners? A better way to deal with Fridays would be to ensure that 35 Fridays are allocated to private Members' Bills, then some of the people who queue up might have a chance to get those Bills into law. The Minister, on behalf of his colleagues, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, wants a four-day week to try to shut up those Tory ex-Prime Ministers and others who are criticising the current Prime Minister, but the ex-Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Finchley (Mrs. Thatcher) will keep coming out into the daylight—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman has said enough. What is his question? Come on, wind it up.

§ Mr. Skinner
The ex-Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Finchley, will keep coming out into the daylight—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order.

§ Mr. MacGregor
The hon. Gentleman can express his views about the organisation of the sittings of the House, and whether they should include Fridays, to the Committee. As I have stressed before to him, when I think I carried the vast majority of the House with me, to suggest that we are talking about a four-day week for Members of Parliament, even if we do not meet on some Fridays, is utterly ridiculous. My point was that hon. Members increasingly have constituency engagements to undertake on Fridays that they cannot carry out at weekends. I was trying to take that into account. The hon. Gentleman does the House no service by suggesting that this has anything to do with a four-day week.

§ Sir John Stokes
Is my right hon. Friend aware that I have no wish for a change in parliamentary hours? Will he, however, consider providing more time for very important debates, such as the great debate last Thursday on Europe? I understand that 78 right hon. and hon. Members wanted to speak but only 20 were called. None of us wants our constituents to ask what we are doing here.

§ Mr. MacGregor
When a very large number of Members wish to speak in certain debates, it is inevitable that not all of them will be called, but that does not mean that we are not expressing our views to the Government of the day, and that can be said to our constituents. I sympathise with my hon. Friend's point about last week's big debate. That is why we lengthened the first day to midnight. I am sure that we shall have plenty of other opportunities to discuss this matter.