§ 2.57 p.m.
§ Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOEMy Lords, I think it would be for the convenience of your Lordships if, with the leave of the House, I made a Statement today about the dates of the Summer Recess as they affect this House. Subject to the progress of business, it is proposed that the House should rise on Thursday, 29th July. It is possible that a formal sitting of the House for the purpose of giving Royal Assent to Bills will be necessary at a later date. The House will then return at the end of our Recess on Monday 27th September.
Earl ST. ALDWYNMy Lords, I am sure the House will be grateful to the noble Baroness for ensuring that we do not sit during August. But I cannot pretend that I am not gravely disturbed at the suggestion of the noble Baroness that the House should return on 27th September. So far as I know, it is the first time, 151 certainly in the memory of any noble Lord present, that the House has come back during the Party Conferences, not only the Labour Party Conference, but the Conservative Party Conference as well. The Liberals, of course, get away with it. The reason for this is because, in an effort to placate the Left Wing of her Party, the Government are trying to force through legislation which is totally unacceptable to the British public.
§ Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOEMy Lords, I should not have dreamed of interfering with the Liberal Party Conference, because we know there are more Liberal Peers than there are Liberal Members of Parliament. But may I answer the noble Earl, Lord St. Aldwyn, absolutely seriously with regard to the Conferences? I regret this very deeply. This Labour Party Conference would have been my thirty-first, and will be the first that I shall miss.
§ Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOEPerhaps they will be better off without me. But I entirely understand the distress of the noble Earl, Lord St. Aldwyn. I should like to say that of course it will not create any precedent. Nevertheless, I am sure the whole House will agree with me that it is better that both Parties should make this sacrifice and therefore have the whole stretch of August and nearly all of September. It will be for the convenience of Peers who have ready-made plans, and also it will be for the convenience of the staff to be able to have this unbroken stretch of time, rather than coming back for an intermediate week in September, with all the inconvenience that that creates.
As for the remarks of the noble Earl about the Left-Wing of my Party, may I say that we on this side of the House believe that we are putting through a constructive and positive programme, and that if the Party of the noble Earl in another place creates trivial local difficulties which attempt to obstruct it, it means that both Houses will have to work a little harder to put the business through.
§ Lord BYERSMy Lords, is there any guarantee that on 27th September there will be any useful business to transact?
§ Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOEYes, my Lords.
§ Lord CARRINGTONMy Lords, I think that, given the mess that the Government have got themselves into, the noble Baroness and the noble Lord the Leader of the House, who are collectively responsible for the mess but perhaps personally not so, have made the best of a bad job. But it does raise the whole question of the Sittings of your Lordships' House, as indeed it does almost every year; this is not unique. I see no reason why your Lordships' House should necessarily sit when the House of Commons is sitting. We seem to spend an awful lot of our time at the beginning of the Session doing very little and an awful lot of time at the end of the Session doing a very great deal. Some of this is inevitable, and many of us on both sides of the House have tried to put this right. I really do think the time has now come when the House ought to take a really hard look at when we sit and not necessarily sit just when the House of Commons sits. The situation now is getting to the point where the House of Commons takes nine months to discuss legislation and your Lordships' House is asked to do it in five weeks.
§ Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOEMy Lords, I am quite sure that the noble Lord will remember that recently, when discussing the setting up of the Select Committee to review the practice and the procedure of the House, my noble Leader said that that Committee would consider the Parliamentary year. I think we can leave that point to the Committee. May I also point out that we shall hope not to be sitting all the time the other House is sitting; indeed there may be some kind of flexibility between the Houses sooner rather than later.