§ Lord DenhamMy Lords, with the leave of the House, I should like to say a word about the two Short Debates this afternoon, standing in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady Burton of Coventry, and the noble Lord, Lord Diamond. The general principle adopted is that the mover should be entitled to approximately 15 minutes and that the Minister should rise to reply no later than 20 minutes before the scheduled end of the debate. On that basis noble Lords who speak in today's first debate, standing in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Burton of Coventry, should limit their speeches to a maximum of eight minutes if they are to avoid trespassing on the ration of speakers later on the list.
The number of speakers in the debate standing in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Diamond, is such that no formal limit needs to be proposed, but I believe it would meet with the general approval of your Lordships if noble Lords would exercise a broadly similar constraint voluntarily in order to preserve the essential character of these debates.