§ 3.48 p.m.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS (VISCOUNT SWINTON)My Lords, before we resume the forestry debate, it might be convenient to your Lordships if I made an announcement about an important change in Business for next week which has been agreed to through the usual channels. As your Lordships are aware, there is still an enormous list of Amendments to be disposed of on the Road Traffic Bill. We have agreed that we must complete the Committee stage on Tuesday, but if we devoted merely Tuesday to it a long and late sitting on that day would be required. Therefore we propose that the House should sit on Monday next, and devote Monday as well as Tuesday to the Committee stage. I will put the necessary Notice on the Order Paper to enable Tuesday's Business to be advanced to Monday. We shall then, if the House agrees, sit on Monday at 2.30, and adjourn at as near seven o'clock as possible. We shall resume the Committee stage on Tuesday, and in that way, if speeches are of a reasonable Committee stage and not of a Second Reading length—and the Government will try to 388 set an example—we may be able to conclude the Committee stage of the Bill before dinner on that day and not have to ask your Lordships to sit late. I think that proposal is an agreed one, but I thought the House would like to know of it at the earliest possible moment.