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Mr. Vernon Coaker (Gedling): Following publication last week of the urban White Paper, will my right hon. Friend find time for a debate on regeneration moneys, particularly to highlight the fact that much of the regeneration money is targeted on inner cities and that, sometimes, areas such as mine in suburbia, which contain small pockets of deprivation, miss out? We need an important debate to ensure that, like inner-city areas, those areas receive the money that they need to regenerate themselves.
Mrs. Beckett: My hon. Friend makes a very powerful point, and I know that it is an issue on which he has campaigned, not least for the area of Netherfield in his Gedling constituency. However, although he makes a very strong point about the need to explore how that money can best be used to regenerate areas that still have considerable difficulties, I fear that I cannot find time for a special debate on it in the near future. May I, however, recommend Westminster Hall to him?
Mr. Paul Tyler (North Cornwall): Does the Leader of the House accept that guillotines, particularly four guillotines in one week, are effectively a confession of failure? Will she say whether any attempt was made to seek the agreement of the Opposition parties to a programme motion for any of those four Bills? Will she say when she expects business to be completed on those nights next week? Will it simply be 10 o'clock, or will she be prepared to go further? Will she also say whether she really believes that it is necessary for guillotines to be so unspecific and therefore so ineffective in giving Opposition Members proper time to test the Government's intention?
What are the Leader of the House's intentions for the next Session? Will she say whether it is her intention, after the Queen's Speech, to implement the recommendation of the Modernisation Committee for an informal mechanism so that the Opposition can be fully involved in discussing the priorities and programming for legislation beyond the Queen's Speech? Will she say why rumours are already circulating in the House of Lords that it will have various Second Readings, and why that has not been the subject of consultation with the Opposition?
Will the mechanism that the Leader of the House intends to establish, and to which she referred in the debate on 7 November, involve Members of both Houses, so that we can ensure that the best route is used for each House, and that next year we do not have this ludicrous legislative logjam?
Mrs. Beckett: No, I do not accept that guillotines are uniquely a confession of failure. They are simply a mechanism that successive Governments have found it necessary to use, especially at the end of a parliamentary session, to ensure timely consideration of matters that remain outstanding.
I am not sure to what the hon. Gentleman was referring when he said that he wished we could be more specific. We have specifically indicated which Bills will be taken on which day. On the question of timing, we shall seek to provide sufficient time, and that matter is still under discussion through the usual channels. I can confirm that the Government have every intention of implementing the informal consultation to which the Modernisation Committee set its hand, after the Queen's Speech. I can assure him that any rumours that he may have heard from the House of Lords are ill-founded. Final decisions have not been made about which legislation will start in which House.
Mr. Christopher Leslie (Shipley): Can we find time in the near future for a debate on the appalling proposal for a landfill site at Buck Park quarry in Denholme in my constituency? Is my right hon. Friend aware that, despite the planning application being refused, the local Conservative council let down residents extremely badly by failing to defend that rejection at the public inquiry?
Mrs. Beckett: My hon. Friend makes an important point. I understand the concern felt by his constituents and others in the locality if they feel that the Conservative council is not reflecting the wishes of local people. I fear that I cannot find time for a special debate in the House on the matter, but I am confident that my hon. Friend will find ways of pursuing it.
Sir George Young (North-West Hampshire): The Leader of the House announced Commons consideration of Lords amendments on the first three days of next week. Will she tell the House whether, before we begin to consider those Bills, there are likely to be Government statements on The Hague summit on climate change and on the rural White Paper? Will she confirm that there are likely to be 118 Lords amendments to the Freedom of Information Bill, 280 amendments to the Countryside and Rights of Way Bill, and 700 amendments to the casually
drafted Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Bill? Will she assure the House that we shall have the opportunity to discharge our responsibilities of scrutiny, and that there will be adequate opportunity to consider all those amendments?
Mrs. Beckett: The right hon. Gentleman will know that it is not usual to give clear confirmation about what statements there may be. The Government are certainly mindful of the impact of statements on other business, but I cannot at this moment say with any certainty what statements will be made.
The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that a substantial number of amendments have been tabled to the Bills.
Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst): How many?
Mrs. Beckett: I cannot immediately say precisely how many. I shall, however, refer again to the words of my noble and distinguished predecessor, Lord Howe, who said:
- Of course, there have been a large number of amendments to the Bill. That is not surprising: it is a major piece of legislation.--[Official Report, 8 November 1989; Vol. 159, c. 1004.]
Angela Smith (Basildon): Can we have a debate on the high cost of public transport for young people under 18? Many of us welcome the Government's proposal in the Transport Bill to give elderly people a free bus pass for half-price travel. However, many young people in my constituency, through our youth forum and through questionnaires that they have returned to me, have highlighted the fact that such concessions are not available to young people. Is it not time that we debated this important issue?
Mrs. Beckett: I know that my hon. Friend has been campaigning in her locality on this subject, and I can understand her concern. It is my understanding that local authorities have some discretion in this matter, although I recognise that authorities have discretions that they do not always find room to operate. Although my hon. Friend makes a strong point, I must recommend to her the usual mechanisms, such as Westminster Hall, as I fear that I cannot offer to find time for such a debate on the Floor of the House.
Mr. Gerald Howarth (Aldershot): On the Bill dealing with the age of consent, do you agree, Mr. Speaker, that it is a bit rich of the Leader of the House to try to pass the buck to you by saying that the matter resides with you? Given that more than 70 per cent. of electors in the Prime Minister's own constituency oppose the measure, would it not be a constitutional outrage to seek to use the Parliament Acts on a matter of conscience when a revised upper House has passed a number of amendments to the Bill? I understand that the Government are not even going to pursue those amendments in the upper House, let alone give this House an opportunity to consider them. Would it
not be a complete contempt of Parliament if amendments passed in the other place were not to be considered in this House before the Parliament Acts were invoked?
Mrs. Beckett: I was not passing the buck at all. I was simply making it clear that I am not attempting to prejudge a decision that is not for me, and I think that the House would accept that.
As for the claim that it would be outrageous and unprecedented to use the Parliament Acts on a matter of conscience that had been the subject of a free vote, I remind the hon. Gentleman--because Opposition Members' memories are so defective--of the War Crimes Bill
Mr. Phil Hope (Corby): Is my right hon. Friend aware that recent research from Canada shows that the effect of parenting style and the quality of parenting on children's behaviour and their academic success at school in later years is more major even than that of income? In the light of that research, will she find time for an early debate on expanding measures to help and support parents? Such measures include the sure start initiative that works with disadvantaged parents in my constituency, and the new parent education guidance for schools, which will introduce parent education for every pupil in the school curriculum.
Mrs. Beckett: My hon. Friend makes a very important point. Like him, I am fortunate enough to have one of the sure start pilots in my constituency, and I strongly welcome it. For various reasons, a few years ago I had cause to study issues to do with child abuse. I am therefore very mindful indeed of how inadequate some people's parenting skills are and of how little opportunity there is to produce good parenting education.
I strongly sympathise with the concern identified by my hon. Friend, but I fear that I cannot undertake to find time for a debate on the Floor of the House. However, I think that Westminster Hall is perhaps the natural forum for such a debate.
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