HL Deb 10 February 1972 vol 327 cc1270-1

3.20 p.m.

LORD SHACKLETON rose to move, That the Fourth Report from the Select Committee on the Procedure of the House, with the Amendment, and the Motion on Procedure of the House standing in the name of the Earl of Perth, with the Amendments thereto, be considered this day in Committee of the Whole House. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper. In order not to take up too much of the time of the House I will only say that this proposal, which is that when we come to debate the Procedure Committee Report and the Amendments thereto the House should go into Committee, is in fact provided for in our Standing Orders, and there are precedents—for instance, when the House was debating the Draft Standing Order on Leave of Absence. At one time there was only one Amendment down, which I think we could have managed without going into Committee, but with a group of Amendments, and taking into account that the House sometimes has some difficulty with these Reports and that Peers may wish to ask one or more questions in the course of the discussion, I would urge the House to agree to go into Committee. I hope that this course, so far from prolonging the proceedings on the Report of the Procedure Committee, may in fact shorten them. I beg to move.

Moved, That the Fourth Report from the Select Committee on the Procedure of the House, with the amendment, and the Motion on Procedure of the House standing in the name of the Earl of Perth, with the amendments thereto, be considered this day in Committee of the Whole House.—(Lord Shackleton.)

LORD ABERDARE

My Lords, I can confirm what the noble Lord the Leader of the Opposition, has said: that there are precedents and that this is provided for in our Standing Orders. I am grateful for his suggestion, because, like him, I think this is now a very complicated matter, with two Motions and an Amendment to the first one and two Amendments to the second. I think we should stay much more clearly in order if we were in Committee than in any other way. I would therefore recommend to the House that it accepts this Motion.

On Question, Motion agreed to.