Business (Hansard, 26 April 1999)

§ Lord Carter
My Lords, as soon as possible after Amendment No.1 of the Committee stage of the Tax Credits Bill has been dealt with, my noble friend Lady Symons of Vernham Dean will, with the leave of the House, repeat a Statement which is to be made in another place on the NATO summit. Thereafter, my noble friend Lord Williams of Mostyn will, again with the leave of the House, repeat a Statement on the London bombings which is also to be made in another place.

§ Lord Henley
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for making that announcement. However, bearing in mind the fact that the Government have known for some considerable time that a Statement would be made by the Prime Minister in the other place on the NATO summit, would it not have been possible for the noble Baroness the Leader of the House to have rearranged her business in Northern Ireland, as Minister for Women, in order to make the Statement herself, as I believe the House would expect?

§ Lord Carter
My Lords, my noble friend the Leader of the House very much regrets that she is unable to be 11 here in person to repeat the Prime Minister's Statement to your Lordships' House today. However, she is unavoidably absent from the House as a result of a longstanding and important ministerial commitment in Belfast in her role as Minister for Women. The visit was arranged as long ago as October last. My noble friend Lady Symons, as Foreign Office Minister in your Lordships' House, has been asked, and has agreed, to repeat the Statement this afternoon.
As I said, my noble friend the Leader of the House is performing an important public engagement in Belfast. It was arranged in October and was publicly announced in February. It is an important initiative. I am sure that noble Lords on the Conservative and Unionist Benches would be outraged were that particular part of the United Kingdom to be treated any less favourably in that regard than other parts of the country. This is only the second occasion since my noble friend became Leader of your Lordships' House that the Prime Minister has made a Statement in the other place and my noble friend has not herself repeated it in this House. It seems to me that the Opposition Chief Whip is straining at a rather odd procedural point.