THE SITTINGS OF THE HOUSE. (Hansard, 1 March 1916)

§ VISCOUNT MIDLETON
My Lords, on the Motion for the adjournment. I would ask the noble Marquess what the intention of the Government is with regard to the future sittings of the House. On the first day of the session we had some discussion on the matter, and certainly several members on this side who are constant attendants are of opinion that it would not be at all an undesirable thing to restrict the meetings of the House to three days in alternate weeks. I do not think it very much adds to our proceedings to meet frequently with a small attendance and not very much to discuss. But if the meetings of the House were fixed for alternate weeks the debates would be more concentrated, and there would be larger attendances and better opportunities for discussion. Unless His Majesty's Government make up their minds as to what should be the sitting days of the House, some days in each week will be filled up. That is now the case for next week. Obviously the Questions that are on the Paper for next week could have been discussed with ample opportunity to-day.

THE MARQUESS OF CREWE
I quite well remember the observations that were made at the opening of the session on this proposal at the instance of my noble friend opposite. We feel that we are really in the hands of the House in this matter. If it is desired that we should only hold sittings on 252 a few days, it ought not, one would think, to be difficult for noble Lords who have Motions that they desire to place on the Paper, by a simple system of combination, to carry out the desire of the noble Viscount; and instead of there being possibly one Question to-day, one tomorrow, and one the next day, noble Lords might agree to put them on the Paper for the same day. But the noble Viscount will see, I am sure, that there is a difficulty in adjourning over a whole week, because he is aware that by the procedure of the House, supposing we were to decide, which I understand is what my noble friend wants, that next week should not be a sitting week and that we should adjourn from to-morrow till the Tuesday of the week following, no power would exist and no device would enable us to hold a sitting in between those dates, however urgent it might be to do so. It is not always quite easy to foresee when urgent financial matters, for instance, may come up from another place and have to be passed rapidly into law. We are unwilling, therefore, to make it the practice to adjourn over a whole week. I think it is not impossible, however, that the opinion which the noble Viscount has expressed, and the opinion which I am now expressing on behalf of the Government, may lead noble Lords to arrange their Notices in a manner which, in effect, would bring about what the noble Viscount desires. It would, of course, be possible for us to sit only two day as week instead of three—that is to say, we could make it a general rule to adjourn on Wednesday evening until the Tuesday following; and I should not be altogether indisposed to take that course if I was quite certain that it had the approval of the House. I remember that when we were discussing the matter before and I hinted some doubt as to whether the noble Viscount's plan would lead to much concentration or to shortening of business and avoidance of waste of time, my observation received not a little assent from noble Lords sitting in different parts of the House. I do not feel, therefore, quite confident that my noble friend, in his desire to meet on alternate weeks, would be supported by the majority of your Lordships. In those circumstances I am disposed to leave the matter as it is for the moment and see whether noble Lords, on the noble Viscount's appeal and mine, will not endeavour to concentrate their Notices a good deal more than they have done in the past.

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
My Lords, I think there is a great deal in what the noble Marquess has said. I agree that it would be better to concentrate our efforts, but there is considerable difficulty in an absolute adjournment over a whole week. I might take an example from what has happened to-day. Had my noble friend been willing to let the Naval Prize (Procedure) Bill take its several stages, he would have read it a first time to-day and a second time to-morrow. But if next week had been one of the weeks when the House did not sit, the Bill could not have been proceeded with until the week after next, which would be a Considerable delay supposing the matter to be one of urgency. That is an illustration of what would happen if your Lordships put it out of your power to legislate for a whole week. There may be a way out of the difficulty, but I certainly cannot support the noble Viscount's suggestion. I am in favour of concentrating our sittings to particular days, but I should be sorry to assent straight off to an absolute adjournment over a whole week unless the Government were quite certain that the business of the country would not suffer.

§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE
My Lords, there is a great deal of force in what my noble friend has just said. There are 254 no doubt a number of Peers who would be very glad to feel sure that for a certain number of days in the week there would be no meeting of the House, so that they might be liberated to attend to the numerous other valuable services to which they are devoted away from London. On the other hand, I think there are a great many of Your Lordships who would be sorry to part unreservedly for a considerable period of time with the privilege of meeting. In my opinion the only way in which this question can be satisfactorily arranged is by some kind of collusion between the independent Peers and His Majesty's Government. I think if Peers who take an interest in the business of the House could manage to concentrate that business and avoid dispersing their Notices over a very wide period of time, we might safely adjourn, let us say, from the Wednesday or Thursday of one week until the Wednesday or Thursday of the following week. That seems to me a possible arrangement, but I do not like to give any encouragement to the idea of abdicating altogether for any very long period our right to meet and transact business at a time like the present.