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Mrs. Shephard: I thank the right hon. Lady for her statement. I also thank her for her acceptance last week of our representations about the days needed for adequate debate of the Budget statement and for the fact that she has made it clear that the Finance Bill will be available shortly in draft form.
The right hon. Lady would be the first to agree that her Government attach great importance to the Budget. She will also agree that many of its proposals are complex and will lead to a complex Finance Bill on which financial institutions and others outside the House will expect to be consulted. Indeed, as she stated in her memorandum to the Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons,
On another matter of great importance to the House, will the right hon. Lady confirm, in view of the courteous invitation from the Minister for the Armed Forces to all
colleagues to express their views on defence issues, that there will be adequate opportunity for hon. Members to debate defence matters in advance of the strategic defence review, bearing in mind the fact that, at this time of the year, the House would normally expect to have five days of debate on defence affairs?
Finally, in respect of a matter on which I have given the right hon. Lady notice, will she refute the suggestion in The Scotsman on Saturday that, the work of the Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons notwithstanding, she intends, with the co-operation of other Opposition parties, to refer debate in Committee on referendum and devolution matters to a Committee upstairs, thereby disregarding and, indeed, flouting the convention that debate on constitutional change should be on the Floor of the House?
Mrs. Taylor:
I am pleased to accept the thanks of the right hon. Lady in respect of the length of the Budget debate and the publication of the draft Finance Bill tomorrow. It is the first time that the Bill has been available in that way and it is a step forward.
In respect of the time available for consultation, the right hon. Lady suggests that we might like to be consistent. I remind her that, in the 1987-88 and 1983-84 Sessions, the gap between the publication of the Finance Bill and its Second Reading was exactly the same as I am proposing.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard
indicated dissent.
Mrs. Taylor:
The right hon. Lady shakes her head, but I can provide her with details of the exact dates if she so wishes.
In respect of the Committee stage, we shall have further discussions through the usual channels. So far, we have accommodated the Opposition's requests, and if we can reach agreement on the Committee stage, so much the better.
With regard to a debate on defence, some weeks ago I made it clear that I thought it inconceivable that we would get too far into the parliamentary year without debating defence. The right hon. Lady also asked me to be consistent in that respect. I have said that we ought to consider the setpiece debates that are sometimes not very well attended, but I accept the need for a defence debate, and we certainly have not ruled that out.
I thank the right hon. Lady for bringing the article in The Scotsman to my attention earlier today. I can confirm what I told her privately--that the story is wrong.
Mr. A. J. Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed):
Will the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee be appointed next week? Does the right hon. Lady recognise that, if it is not, the Finance Bill will proceed without the usual detailed questioning of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Governor of the Bank of England and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury which normally informs such debates?
In respect of the National Health Service (Private Finance) Bill, which we are now not taking next week, does she recognise that it is a bad principle to deal with all the stages of a Bill on the same day, and that it makes
for bad law making? When she makes arrangements for it to be considered, will she ensure that the stages are separated?
Mrs. Taylor:
We are trying to make progress. We have been discussing the establishment of Select Committees with minority parties as well as Opposition parties, and we will be ready to act in the very near future.
The hon. Gentleman will know that the National Health Service (Private Finance) Bill started in the Lords and has undergone scrutiny there. There is a great deal of agreement among hon. Members on its principles and effects, and it would be reasonable to make a great deal of progress on a rapid time scale.
Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich):
Does my right hon. Friend acknowledge that the previous Transport Select Committee did a great deal of detailed and informed work on urgent matters? Can she assure me that its successor will be set up very soon and that it will have the full co-operation of the Government in carrying out exactly the same tasks, which are urgently needed in the transport sector?
Mrs. Taylor:
My hon. Friend has an outstanding record of contribution to that Committee. I am sure that the new Committee will operate on a similar basis to its predecessor, which did a great deal of outstanding work.
Mr. John Wilkinson (Ruislip-Northwood):
The Leader of the House will be aware that the transport Department has been conducting protracted negotiations with United States authorities on the renewal of a UK-US air service agreement, involving also the European Commission and touching on such crucial questions as gateways into the US, cabotage of British carriers in the US, slots at Heathrow, and above all, the proposed BA-American Airlines alliance. We have so far had only a written answer on these matters from the Government--no debate, no statement on progress. May we have an early debate? If the Government refuse, at the very least may we have a proper statement and question and answer session when decisions are reached?
Mrs. Taylor:
There are no plans for a debate at the present time. Should a statement be thought necessary, one will be made.
Mr. Dale Campbell-Savours (Workington):
May I gently press my right hon. Friend once again for a debate on the disposal of nuclear waste, which would allow us to discuss not only Nirex and its future programme but Beaufort's Dyke?
Mrs. Taylor:
I do not see a prospect of an early debate. On Beaufort's Dyke, I think that my hon. Friend will acknowledge that the Government made the information that came to them available as quickly as possible and acted with all speed on the matter in order that there should not be too much alarmism surrounding the issue.
Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West):
The provisions announced yesterday for the windfall tax and advance corporation tax are very complex. I do not believe--and it has not been my experience in the past--that the timetable that the right hon. Lady has announced
Mrs. Taylor:
I am confident that the very popular Budget, with all its provisions, which was announced yesterday, can be properly scrutinised, and that we can establish an appropriate timetable for doing so.
Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire):
New Members are quickly and efficiently getting used to our procedures. Will they not therefore get a shock to find that, when we come to a recess, after being elected Members of Parliament they become Members without a Parliament for about 12 weeks? Can something be done to improve the arrangements by which they can check the Executive in that period--by, for instance, allowing parliamentary questions to be tabled and answered, and early-day motions to be tabled?
Mrs. Taylor:
My hon. Friend has raised an important issue. I have commented on such issues in the past. It is appropriate that the Select Committee on the Modernisation of the House of Commons should look at both the problem that he has raised and the possible solutions that he has posed.
Mr. William Cash (Stone):
The right hon. Lady dodged a number of questions yesterday in relation to the private notice question. Will she deny that the report in the Financial Times referred to a "senior member of the Government", who had--
Madam Speaker:
Order. We had a debate on that yesterday; I allowed a private notice question. Is the hon. Gentleman asking about next week's business, because that is what business questions are for? We have touched on new Members getting into habits; we are getting into bad habits in Question Time. I now want a business question from Mr. Cash.
"the quality of legislation can often be improved by consultation with informed opinion on both the substance and the drafting of legislative proposals".
It is because of the right hon. Lady's stated views on the importance of consultation that I press her on her plans for the Committee stage of the Finance Bill. Would she like specifically to refute the suggestion that she plans for the Committee stage of the Bill to be a disgracefully and unprecedentedly truncated process which will precisely prevent the very consultation with informed opinion to which she aspires in her memorandum? I am sure that she wishes there to be no inconsistency between what she says and what she does in the House.
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