§ 3.41 p.m
§ Lord CarterMy Lords, it may be for the convenience of the House—I hope that this does not come as a surprise to your Lordships—to know that my right honourable friend the Prime Minister has today asked Her Majesty the Queen to proclaim the Dissolution of Parliament. Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to signify that she will comply with this request.
The House will meet at 2.30 p.m. tomorrow, at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday and at 9.30 a.m. on Friday. At the end of Friday's business the House will adjourn and Dissolution will take place on Monday, 14th May. The general election will take place on Thursday, 7th June.
We shall proceed with today's business as it appears on the Order Paper, although, in the light of this announcement, it is proposed to adjust the remainder of the week's business in your Lordships' House. With the leave of the House, I propose to make a further statement about these matters later today. I shall try to ensure that notice of the statement is given on the annunciators but I cannot at this stage inform the House of exactly what time the statement will be made. It may also be for the convenience of the House to know that my noble friend the Leader of the House will today table a Business of the House Motion for consideration at the start of business tomorrow, as is usual on these occasions.
§ Lord HenleyMy Lords, I thank the Government Chief Whip for that statement. Clearly the very short period between the announcement of the Dissolution and the Dissolution itself will mean that a number of Bills on which the House has been working very hard will not be completed. We on these Benches will, in the usual way, offer all our assistance and co-operation in moving forward certain non-controversial items which have had a reasonable parliamentary scrutiny. We hope that later today we shall be able to facilitate a further statement from the Government Chief Whip which will assist the House to understand what will happen. We look forward to hearing further details from him on that occasion.
The noble Lord mentioned that we shall sit tomorrow at 2.30 p.m., at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday and at 9.30 a.m. on Friday. I hope that we can reach a degree of agreement in terms of what business should go through to enable us to stick to those times. I hope that we shall be able to firm up on those times later today in order to make it quite clear to the House what 911 we will be doing and when we will be doing it. Members of the House will then be able to adjust their diaries accordingly.
§ Baroness Williams of CrosbyMy Lords, I, too, thank the Government Chief Whip for his "surprising" statement about the forthcoming general election. I can assure him that we on these Benches will co-operate in every way possible on non-controversial and beneficial legislation and endeavour to speed up such matters.
Perhaps the noble Lord will let us know whether Starred Questions will take place in the usual way on Thursday at the beginning of business. We look forward to the further statement.
§ Lord CarterMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Henley, and the noble Baroness, Lady Williams. I believe that the period between the announcement and dissolution is the normal period that has been followed in previous years. We discussed it in the usual channels this morning and there is no reason that we should not be able to stick to the times that I have suggested. As to the question of the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, yes, there will be Prayers and Starred Questions as usual on Wednesday at 2.30 p.m. and on Thursday at 11.30 a.m. There will be Prayers but obviously there will be no Starred Questions on Friday.