§ 2.42 p.m.
§ THE CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES (THE EARL OF LISTOWEL)My Lords, since I put this Bill down last week for Second Reading this afternoon, I have been informed that several noble Lords wish to speak on the Bill, and also that an Instruction to the Committee to which the Bill may be referred by your Lordships may also be put down. In view of this, I would suggest, for the convenience of the House, and in accordance with usual practice, that Second Reading be put down for a later day; namely, Thursday of next week. I must apologise to any noble Lords who have come to the 1000 House this afternoon intending to speak on the Second Reading on not having been able to give them advance notice of my proposal, but it was only yesterday that I was informed that noble Lords would wish to speak on the Second Reading of this Bill. That is my difficulty. In the circumstances, I do not propose to move the Second Reading this afternoon.
LORD TEYNHAMMy Lords, on a point of Order, I understand from what the noble Earl has said that the Second Reading of this Bill is being postponed so that at a later stage a Motion for an Instruction to the Committee can be debated. This Bill has passed through all its stages in another place, and surely the House is entitled to take the Second Reading to-day as there is no mention on the Order Paper of a debate on an Instruction to the Committee. I suggest that the Second Reading should be taken to-day, and that the Bill should then be sent up to a Private Bill Committee for examination in the usual way. Those of us who have an interest in the Bill may not be able to be present at the future date, which I understand is to be Thursday of next week, when an Instruction to the Committee may be debated.
§ THE EARL OF LISTOWELMy Lords, in reply to the noble Lord may I say that I am, of course, entirely in the hands of the House in this matter. There are, however, several other noble Lords, and I think a noble Lady, who have expressed a wish to speak on this Bill. They have been informed that the proposal is to postpone the Second Reading until next week and they now intend to speak next week. If we were to take the Second Reading now, we should prevent the other noble Lords and the noble Lady from taking part in the Second Reading debate.
§ LORD CARRINGTONMy Lords. I know that the Lord Chairman of Committees has a very difficult job to do and that these are difficult matters, but how is it that the other people who wished to speak on this Bill were informed that it was going to be postponed, although my noble friend who was taking the Bill was not informed?
§ THE EARL OF LISTOWELMy Lords, I am afraid the fact is that I am able to know whether noble Lords wish to 1001 speak on a Bill only if they inform me. I do not think the noble Lord, Lord Teynham, informed me until this morning, and that is the reason why I was not able to give him advance notice, which was indeed very short in the case of the other noble Lords. However, I managed to give them advance notice yesterday because they informed me of their intention.
§ LORD CARRINGTONMy Lords, may I just press the Lord Chairman of Committees? I quite understand his difficulty about this matter, but it seems to me to be a rather bad state of affairs when there is a Bill down on the Order Paper which the whole House—unless noble Lords happen to have told the Lord Chairman of Committees that they were going to speak on it—thinks is going to be debated this afternoon, and when there does not seem to be any way of letting the House know that something has happened in between its being put on the Order Paper and this afternoon's proceedings. This does not seem to me to be very satisfactory from the point of view of your Lordships, and perhaps it will be possible to look at the position in the future to see whether we can overcome this difficulty.
§ THE EARL OF LISTOWELMy Lords, of course I will consider very carefully the suggestion which the noble Lord the Leader of the Opposition has made and see whether or not we could alter our procedure in order to find out further in advance if there is likely to be any discussion on the Second Reading of a Private Bill.
LORD SALTOUNMy Lords, if everybody wishes to be very particular, is it not possible for the Second Reading to be moved this afternoon and then adjourned until Thursday? At the moment there is no Motion before the House, as I understand it.
§ THE EARL OF LISTOWELMy Lords, I think this is the customary procedure of your Lordships' House. Unless there is any strong reason to alter it on this occasion, I suggest that your Lordships have the debate on the Second Reading of the Bill.