§ 3.1 p.m.
§ EARL FORTESCUEMy Lords, I have to inform the House of the arrangements which have been made, through the usual channels, for the Committee stage of the Housing Repairs and Rents Bill which begins this afternoon. There are some fifty Amendments and it is not expected that we shall get through all of them this evening. We therefore propose that we should sit this evening until between 7 and 7.30 o'clock and then adjourn the Committee stage until Tuesday next, May 25, when, if necessary, the House will sit after dinner in order to complete the Committee stage.
§ LORD SILKINMy Lords, I thank the noble Earl for his statement which, generally speaking, is acceptable to us. I should just like to mention that we have only twenty-one of the fifty Amendments which he mentioned—the other twenty-nine are beyond our control. I hope very much that we shall be able to finish this Committee stage next Tuesday, but I should not like to give a guarantee. We shall certainly not be obstructive, but if there is anything to discuss I hope that we shall he able to discuss it. I mention this because the noble Earl said that next Tuesday we shall sit after dinner, if necessary, in order to complete the Committee stage. I hope that we shall complete it, but if we find that it is difficult to do so, although we are making good progress, I hope that it may be possible to have even another Sitting to finish the Committee stage.
§ EARL FORTESCUEMy Lords, the only answer I can give is that we must hope for the best.