HL Deb 18 November 1987 vol 490 c194

3.2 p.m.

Lord Denham

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall arrange for a Statement that will be made in another place this afternoon on training for the unemployed to be printed in the Official Report.

With the leave of the House, I should like to say a word about the length of speeches in this afternoon's debate standing in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Sherfield, to which your Lordships have agreed to apply a five-hour time limit. On the principle that the mover is allowed approximately 20 minutes and that the Minister should rise to reply not less than 25 minutes before the scheduled end of the debate, all other speeches should he limited to a strict upper limit of 12 minutes. If any noble Lord should speak at greater length he would be doing so at the expense of other speakers in the debate.