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7.37 pm

Mr. Nick St. Aubyn (Guildford): On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Will you confirm that under the terms of the timetable motion that we are about to consider, only amendments proposed by a Minister of the Crown may be voted on, and that amendments that might be voted on but are proposed by Government or Opposition Back Benchers will be excluded, with the effect that the motion limits not only the length of the debate but what we may debate in the following hours?

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): It is not a matter for the Chair to rule on the content of a timetable motion before the House. A motion will be moved and hon. Members will then have the opportunity to comment on the content of the particular motion before the House, so there is time for that debate.

Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West): Further to that point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Is there any precedent of which you are aware for a guillotine motion not only to curtail the length of a debate but to seek to constrain--

Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. The short answer is probably "plenty", but that is a matter for the debate.

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Immigration and Asylum Bill (Supplemental Allocation of Time)

7.38 pm

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Jack Straw): I beg to move,

That the Order of the House [15th June] be supplemented as follows:

Lords Amendments


1.--(1) Proceedings on Consideration of Lords Amendments shall be completed at today's sitting and, if not previously concluded, shall be brought to a conclusion five hours after the commencement of proceedings on this Order.


(2) The Lords Amendments shall be considered in the following order: No. 135, Nos. 1 to 134 and Nos. 136 to 369.
(3) Proceedings on Lords Amendment No. 135 shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion one and a half hours after the commencement of proceedings on the Bill.
2.--(1) This paragraph applies for the purpose of bringing the proceedings on Amendment No. 135 to a conclusion in accordance with paragraph 1(3).
(2) The Speaker shall first put forthwith any Question which has already been proposed from the Chair and not yet decided.
(3) If that Question is for the amendment of the Lords Amendment, the Speaker shall then put forthwith the Question on the Motion made by a Minister of the Crown, That this House disagrees with the Lords in the Amendment or (as the case may be) in the Amendment as amended.
3.--(1) This paragraph applies for the purpose of bringing any proceedings to a conclusion in accordance with paragraph 1(1).
(2) The Speaker shall first put forthwith any Question which has already been proposed from the Chair and not yet decided.
(3) If that Question is for the amendment of a Lords Amendment, the Speaker shall then put forthwith--
(a) the Question on any further Amendment of the Lords Amendment moved by a Minister of the Crown and
(b) the Question on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown, That this House agrees or disagrees with the Lords in the Amendment or (as the case may be) in the Amendment as amended.
(4) The Speaker shall then put forthwith--
(a) the Question on any Amendment moved by a Minister of the Crown to a Lords Amendment, and
(b) the Question on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown, That this House agrees or disagrees with the Lords in the Amendment or (as the case may be) in their Amendment as amended.
(5) The Speaker shall then put forthwith the Question on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown, That this House disagrees with the Lords in a Lords Amendment.
(6) The Speaker shall then put forthwith the Question, That this House agrees with the Lords in all the remaining Lords Amendments.
(7) As soon as the House has agreed or disagreed with the Lords in any of their Amendments, or disposed of an Amendment relevant to a Lords Amendment which has been disagreed to, the Speaker shall put forthwith a single Question on any Amendments moved by a Minister of the Crown relevant to the Lords Amendment.

Subsequent stages


4.--(1) The Speaker shall put forthwith the Question on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown for the consideration forthwith of any further Message from the Lords on the Bill.


(2) The proceedings on any further Message from the Lords shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion one hour after their commencement.

9 Nov 1999 : Column 955

(3) Sub-paragraphs (4) to (7) apply for the purpose of bringing those proceedings to a conclusion.
(4) The Speaker shall first put forthwith any Question which has already been proposed from the Chair and not yet decided.
(5) The Speaker shall then put forthwith the Question on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown which is related to the Question already proposed from the Chair.
(6) The Speaker shall then put forthwith the Question on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown on any item.
(7) The Speaker shall then put forthwith the Question, That this House agrees with the Lords in all the remaining Lords Proposals.

Reasons Committee


5. The Speaker shall put forthwith the Question on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown for the appointment, nomination and quorum of a Committee to draw up Reasons and the appointment of its Chairman.


6.--(1) A Committee appointed to draw up Reasons shall report before the conclusion of the sitting at which it is appointed.
(2) Proceedings in the Committee shall, if not previously brought to a conclusion, be brought to a conclusion 30 minutes after their commencement.
(3) For the purpose of bringing any proceedings to a conclusion in accordance with sub-paragraph (2) the Chairman shall--
(a) first put forthwith any Question which has already been proposed from the Chair and has not yet been decided; and
(b) then put forthwith successively Questions on motions which may be made by a Minister of the Crown for assigning a Reason for disagreeing with the Lords in any of their Amendments.
(4) The proceedings of the Committee shall be reported without any further Question being put.

Miscellaneous


7. If the House is adjourned, or the sitting is suspended, before the expiry of the period at the end of which any proceedings are to be brought to a conclusion under this Order, no notice shall be required of a Motion made at the next sitting by a Minister of the Crown for varying or supplementing the provisions of this Order.


8.--(1) In this paragraph "the proceedings" means proceedings on Consideration of Lords Amendments, on any further Message from the Lords on the Bill, on the appointment and quorum of a Committee to draw up Reasons and the Report of such a Committee.
(2) Standing Order No. 15(1) (Exempted business) shall apply to the proceedings.
(3) The proceedings shall not be interrupted under any Standing Order relating to the sittings of the House.
(4) No dilatory Motion with respect to, or in the course of, the proceedings shall be made except by a Minister of the Crown, and the Question on any such Motion shall be put forthwith.
9. If proceedings on a Motion for the Adjournment of the House would, by virtue of Standing Order No. 24 (Adjournment on specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration), commence at a time when proceedings to which paragraph 8 applies are in progress, proceedings on the Motion shall be postponed to the conclusion of those proceedings.

The Bill has been subject to more sustained, detailed scrutiny than any similar Bill in living memory. We published a White Paper in July 1998, and earlier this year we committed the Bill to a Special Standing Committee--a procedure of the House that was introduced by the Opposition when they were in government, but which they then allowed to lie fallow and only ever used for minor, relatively non-contentious Bills.

9 Nov 1999 : Column 956

My hon. Friends who were in Parliament before the 1997 general election will recall that, in the autumn of 1995, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, then the Leader of the Opposition, moved that the Asylum and Immigration Bill introduced by the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) should be committed to a Special Standing Committee, where it could be properly examined. For reasons best known to Conservative Members--but which I am sure they will have come to regret because of the defects in that Bill--they refused to allow the Bill to be properly scrutinised.

We decided not to follow the errors of the previous Government. The Bill was committed to a Special Standing Committee. There were four weeks of hearings in the Special Standing Committee, which took evidence from a wide variety of groups and spent a total of 93 hours scrutinising the Bill, taking and considering the evidence and engaged in line-by-line examination. Parliament has indeed done its work--or some Members of Parliament, I ought to say, have done their work--on the Bill, and it is a better Bill as a result of that scrutiny and the amendments that we introduced.

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