HL Deb 27 January 1988 vol 492 cc631-2
Lord Denham

My Lords, with the leave of the House I should like to say a word about the two short debates standing in the names of the noble Earl, Lord Perth, and the noble Lord, Lord Allen of Abbeydale. It is customary in short debates that the mover is allowed 15 minutes and that the Minister should rise to reply not less than 20 minutes before the scheduled end of the debate. In the case of the debate in the name of the noble Earl, this means that all other speeches should be limited to a maximum of eight minutes and in that of the noble Lord to 11 minutes. I think it would be apposite to remind noble Lords who are speaking that, were they to allow the figures eight or 11 respectively to appear on the clock, their speeches would already be too long.