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Business of the House

3.31 pm

The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mrs. Ann Taylor): With permission, Madam Speaker, I shall make a statement on the business for next week.

Monday 10 November--Second Reading of the Greater London Authority (Referendum) Bill.

Tuesday 11 November--Second Reading of the Bank of England Bill.

Consideration of Lords amendments to the Local Government (Contracts) Bill.

Wednesday 12 November--Until 2 pm, there will be the usual morning debates on a motion for the Adjournment of the House.

Second Reading of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill.

Thursday 13 November--Debate on the modernisation of the House of Commons on a motion to approve the first report of the Modernisation Committee.

Friday 14 November--Debate on policing of London on a motion for the Adjournment of the House

The provisional business for the following week will be as follows.

Monday 17 November--Opposition Day [4th allotted day] [first part].

Debate until about 7 pm on a subject to be decided by the Liberal Democrats, which will be announced next week.

Motion to approve the eighth report from the Committee on Standards and Privileges.

Tuesday 18 November--Second Reading of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Bill.

Wednesday 19 November--Until 2 pm, there will be the usual morning debates on the motion for the Adjournment of the House.

Consideration in Committee of the Greater London Authority (Referendum) Bill [first day].

Thursday 20 November--Motion to take note of the outstanding reports of the Public Accounts Committee, which we originally scheduled for Thursday next week. Details will be given in the Official Report.

Friday 21 November--Debate on the review of civil justice and legal aid on a motion for the Adjournment of the House

The House will also wish to know that, on Wednesday 12 November, there will be a debate on landfill waste sites in European Standing Committee A. On Wednesday 19 November, there will be a debate on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies: controls on cattle, sheep and goats, in European Standing Committee A, and a debate on the draft general budget for 1998 in European Standing Committee B.

Details of the relevant documents will be given in the Official Report.

[Wednesday 12 November:

European Standing Committee A--Relevant European Community Document: 6692/97, Landfill Waste Sites. Relevant European Legislation Committee Report: HC 155-iii (1997-98).

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Wednesday 19 November:

European Standing Committee A--Relevant European Community Document: 10047/97, TSE: Prohibition of Risk Material.

Relevant European Legislation Committee Reports: HC 155-iii (1997-98) and HC 155-iv (1997-98).

European Standing B--Relevant European Community Document: 10153/97, Draft General Budget 1998. Relevant European Legislation Committee Report: HC 155-iv (1997-98)

Thursday 2 November:

Public Accounts Committee Reports, Session 1996-97.

Report No:	Title	HC No.	Publication Date
1	The office of Gas Supply: The Regulation of Gas Tariffs (The Gas Cost Index)	37	14 November
2	Progress in Completing the New British Library	38	20 November
3	The Sale of the Mining Operations of the British Coal Corporation	60	21 November
4	The Construction of Quarry House	69	27 November
5	Highways Agency: The Bridge Programme	83	28 November
6	The Audit of European Community Transactions	84	4 December
7	The Hospital Information Support Systems Initiative	97	5 December
8	Information Technology Services Agency: Outsourcing The Service Delivery Operations	98	11 December
9	Resource Accounting and Proposals for a Resource-based System of Supply	167	15 January
10	Excess Vote NI DHSS		19 February
11	Excess Votes Classes I, IV, VII, XIII, XIV, XVII (7&13)	293	13 February
12	ODA: Turkish Universities Equipment Project	70	27 February
13	H M Treasury: The Second Sale of Shares in National Power and PowerGen	151	6 March
14	Dept for Education & Employment: Financial Control of Payments made under the Training for Work and Youth Training Programmes in England	61	13 March
15	The Award of the First Three Passenger Rail Franchises	39	13 March
16	Office of Electricity Regulation, Office of Gas Supply: The Work of the Directors General of Telecommunications, Gas Supply, Water Services and Electricity Supply	89	19 March
17	Health of the Nation: A Progress Report	85	20 March
18	National Savings: Financial Reporting	214	25 March
19	Former Yorkshire Regional Health Authority	432	26 March
20	Payments to the National Lottery Distribution Fund	99	27 March
21	The Management of Space in Higher Education Institutions in Wales	159	2 April
22	British Rail Maintenance Limited: The Sale of Maintenance Depots	168	3 April
23	Ministry of Defence: The Financial Management of the Military Operation in the Former Yugoslavia	242	4 April
24	Department of Transport: Freight Facilities Grants in England	284	8 April
25	Plymouth Development Corporation: Regularity Propriety and Control of Expenditure	450	8 April
Replies
	Treasury Minute on the First to Eighth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts 1996-97	CM 3559	12 February 1997
	Treasury Minute on the Ninth Report from the Committee of Public Accounts 1996-97	CM 3577	12 March 1997
	Treasury Minute on the Twelfth to Twenty-Fifth Reports from the Committee of Public Accounts 1996-97	CM 3714	16 July 1997

6 Nov 1997 : Column 397

Mrs. Gillian Shephard (South-West Norfolk): I thank the right hon. Lady for her statement. She will doubtless recall that last week my hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire (Sir P. Cormack) asked for a debate on the Government's policy on higher education. Despite two such debates this week and despite the Prime Minister's frantic consultation of his briefing notes yesterday, it became clear from his inability to answer a simple question on the matter that he does not understand Government policy on higher education.

Will she arrange for another debate, at a time when the Prime Minister can attend, so that he can grasp what is perfectly clear to the rest of us--that his policy will mean that Scottish and European Union students at Scottish universities have their fourth-year fees met from public funds, while English, Welsh and Northern Irish students do not? He will then be better equipped than he was yesterday to explain precisely how the situation that that policy has created contributes to his manifesto pledge of equal opportunity for all.

Will the right hon. Lady also arrange for an early debate on the Government's policy on the tobacco industry's sponsorship of sport? May we have an explanation from the Secretary of State for Health of the criteria applied by the Minister for Public Health in deciding that formula one racing should be exempted from the Government's much-vaunted ban on tobacco sponsorship? Was that decision based on the fact that formula one racing is more popular than angling, healthier than cricket or more accessible to many than darts--or were other considerations taken into account? In the interests of open government, we should be told.

May we have an early debate on open government, so that the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Cabinet Minister responsible for open government, can come out

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of hiding to expand on his remarks to local media, reported in The Times on 20 October, that he is being forced out of office by a smear campaign conducted by a senior colleague? Such a debate would also enable him to explain to the House why he needed trips to the United States, Canada and Australasia to study open government. After all, his party's manifesto pledges should have meant that by now he was a member of one.

Mrs. Ann Taylor: I really do think that the right hon. Lady's final remarks are ridiculous, coming from a member of Government who took no steps whatever in the direction of open government. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will make a statement in the House when he presents the White Paper on freedom of information, and I am sure that many hon. Members look forward to that.

On the subject of higher education, the right hon. Lady is right that we have had two debates recently, during which we heard no constructive suggestions from the Conservative party on how to deal with the problems in higher education that we inherited. If she is interested in the matter, she will be aware that education Question Time is next week, so any outstanding issues can be dealt with--not that there will be many.

The position on formula one sponsorship has been made clear, not least by the Prime Minister yesterday. Formula one is a genuinely global sport and it relies on tobacco advertising much more than any other sport, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health said back in June and July when the issue was first considered. A European Union ban of the type suggested would lead to alternative circuits in other parts of the world taking the sport, and British viewers would still see it on television. Any ban imposed would thus be circumvented.

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