§ Lord CarterMy Lords, before dealing with the Private Notice Question tabled by the noble Lord the Leader of the Opposition, it may be for the convenience of the House if I remind your Lordships of the procedure to be followed for Private Notice Questions. Proceedings follow the rules for Starred Questions. The Companion states that supplementary questions should be short and confined to not more than two points. In addition, the Procedure 1131 Committee recently agreed that proceedings on a Private Notice Question are expected to take not more than 10 minutes.