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Business of the House

12.31 pm

Mr. Oliver Heald (North-East Hertfordshire) (Con): Will the Leader of the House please give us the business for next week?

The Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Peter Hain): The business for next week will be as follows.

Monday 21 June—Second Reading of the Health Protection Agency Bill [Lords].

Tuesday 22 June—Opposition day [13th allotted day]. There will be a debate entitled "Threat to the Integrity of the Electoral System", followed by a debate on NHS recruitment and retention. Both debates arise on an Opposition motion.

Wednesday 23 June—Motion to approve a Ways and Means resolution on the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill [Lords], followed by motions to approve the appointment of managing trustees to the parliamentary contributory pension fund and the House of Commons Members' fund, followed by, if necessary, consideration of Lords amendments.

Thursday 24 June—Estimates [3rd Allotted Day]. There will be a debate on the Highways Agency and a debate on taxis and private hire vehicles. Details will be given in the Official Report.

At 6 pm the House will be asked to agree all outstanding estimates.

Friday 25 June—The House will not be sitting.

The provisional business for the following week will be:

Monday 28 June—Proceedings on the Consolidated Fund (Appropriation) Bill, followed by remaining stages of the Human Tissue Bill.

Tuesday 29 June—A debate on London schools on a motion for the Adjournment of the House, followed by a motion to take note of the outstanding reports of the Public Accounts Committee to which the Government have replied. Details will be given in the Official Report.

Wednesday 30 June—Opposition day [14th allotted day]. There will be a debate on an Opposition motion. Subject to be announced.

Thursday 1 July—A debate on Zimbabwe on a motion for the Adjournment of the House.

Friday 2 July—The House will not be sitting.

Following are the details: Thursday 24 June—Estimates to be considered: Central Government Supply Estimates 2004–05 (HC 466); House of Commons: Administration Main Supply Estimate 2004–05 (HC 467); National Audit Office Main Supply Estimate 2004–05 (HC 468); Electoral Commission Main Supply Estimate 2004–05 (HC 469).

Tuesday 29 June—outstanding PAC reports 2003–04 to be considered: 1st report, "Tackling fraud against the Inland Revenue" (HC 62) (Cm 6130); 2nd report, "The new electricity trading arrangements in England and Wales" (HC 63) (Cm 6130); 3rd report, "The Sheep Annual Premium Scheme" (HC 64) (Cm 6136); 4th report, "Improving service delivery: the Forensic Science Service" (HC 137) (Cm 6155); 5th report, "Warm Front: helping to combat fuel poverty" (HC 206)
 
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(Cm 6175); 6th report, "Department of Trade and Industry: Regional Grants in England" (HC 207) (Cm 6155); 7th report, "Progress on 15 major capital projects funded by Arts Council England" (HC 253) (Cm 6155); 8th report, "The English national stadium project at Wembley" (HC 254) (Cm 6155); 9th report, "Review of grants made to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns" (HC 305) (Cm 6175); 10th report, "Purchasing and managing software licences" (HC 306) (Cm 6175); 11th report, "Helping consumers benefit from competition in telecommunications" (HC 405) (Cm 6191); 12th report, "Getting it right, putting it right: Improving decision-making and appeals in social security benefits" (HC 406) (Cm 6191); 14th report, "Inland Revenue: Tax Credits" (HC 89) (Cm tbc); 15th report, "Procurement of vaccines by the Department of Health" (HC 429) (Cm tbc); 16th report, "Progress in improving the medical assessment of incapacity and disability benefits" (HC 120) (Cm 6191); 18th report, "PFI: The new headquarters for the Home Office" (HC 501) (Cm tbc); 19th report, "Making a difference: Performance of maintained secondary schools in England" (HC 104) (Cm tbc).

The House may wish to be reminded that, subject to the progress of business, the House will rise for the summer recess at the end of business on Thursday 22 July and return on Tuesday 7 September.

Mr. Heald: I thank the Leader of the House for announcing the business, and in particular for announcing the debate on Zimbabwe. Can he confirm that there will be a statement from the Prime Minister on Monday about the intergovernmental conference?

Does the right hon. Gentleman recall that he got into a bit of trouble last year when he said he was quite happy

"to fight the . . . European elections on a Labour platform endorsing"

the European constitution? He said

"the Conservatives can oppose it and then the people will decide."

Now that the majority have voted for parties opposed to the constitution, will the right hon. Gentleman not accept their verdict that there is no mandate to sign up to the European constitution?

The right hon. Gentleman has announced an Opposition day debate on the postal ballots fiasco. My hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Dame Marion Roe) has uncovered an important aspect of that: the shocking state of electoral registers with up to 20 per cent. inaccuracies, which has led to thousands of postal ballot papers being sent out to the wrong people. In Newcastle and in Chester, even babies received postal ballot papers. The Chester Chronicle headline was, "Blair's Babe: Voting slip 16 years early". The Labour leader of Birmingham city council, Sir Albert Bore, has called for a national rethink on postal voting. [Interruption.] This is the Labour leader of the council calling for the rethink. Does the Leader of the House recognise that the advantage of a polling station is that the voter is positively identified and the scope for impersonation reduced? Will he give an assurance that the review of the all-postal experiment will be completed and debated before the Government lay the necessary orders to make this autumn's regional assembly referendums all postal?
 
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The right hon. Gentleman promised a draft Bill to set up regional assemblies before July. Can he reassure us that there will be a debate about the Bill before the referendums? The Prime Minister has made it clear how vital it is to have lengthy parliamentary debate before a referendum, so will the Leader of the House confirm that that applies not just to the European constitution, but to regional assemblies?

Finally, turning from bogus voters to bogus visas, can we have a debate on visa abuse and illegal immigration? Today's National Audit Office report slams the Home Office for allowing 10 times as many visa applications as embassy staff advised. Yesterday the police smashed a multi-million pound scam, involving student visas with more than 1,000 illegal entrants.

Is it not time that the Government started to listen to, and act on, advice? They are ignoring the voters on the European constitution; they ignored the Electoral Commission's advice on all-postal ballots; they ignored their own embassies' advice on immigration visas. Does the Leader of the House understand why people feel let down by Labour? Can we have a statement—a statement of apology?

Mr. Hain: You would not have thought, Mr. Speaker, from that bravura performance that the Conservatives actually lost the elections last week. [Interruption.] Yes, in comparison with the predictions of the Leader of the Opposition, as supported by Conservative Back Benchers, they did very badly indeed.

On Zimbabwe, I freely acknowledge that the hon. Gentleman, and others on both sides of the House, has been pressing me on that matter. I am pleased that we are having a debate about it, which will present an opportunity to send a message loud and clear to Robert Mugabe about what the House thinks of his despotic rule.

Yes, the Prime Minister will make a statement on Monday, following the European Council. The hon. Gentleman referred to the European elections. Of course, when I made my statement last year, there was no prospect of a referendum on the European constitutional treaty. Now there will be a referendum and we will fight it. When we do so, the pathetic Conservative policy on Europe will be exposed and it will be made very clear to the voters. One of the reasons why Conservative policy will be exposed relates to what happened last Thursday. I am surprised—no, perhaps I am not surprised—that the hon. Gentleman did not refer to the fact that a large proportion of the Conservative vote went to the United Kingdom Independence party. Some of his own Back Benchers are sympathetic to the withdrawal from Europe strategy. When the arguments are raised with the electorate, the electorate will clearly see that Britain should be at the heart of Europe under Labour and that Britain would be on a train out of Europe under the Tories.

On the issue of postal votes, the hon. Gentleman mentioned Birmingham, but there were no pilots for postal votes in Birmingham. There were local elections, but not the all-postal voting pilot arrangements that he and his colleagues consistently complain about. They
 
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did not apply in the west midlands. I should like to quote the joint statement from the north-west regional returning officer, Sir Howard Bernstein, and Martin Bottomley of the Greater Manchester police, who said:

"While the nature of the allegations has changed this year, the scale has not increased; if anything, it has lessened."

When we look at the facts as opposed to the hype and the rhetoric, what we see is that 14 million people were given the opportunity to vote from the comfort of their own homes. The pilots covered that scale of voters, compared with 6.5 million last year. European election turnout in pilot regions was up more than 100 per cent. Is that not a good thing for democracy? That is compared with a rise of less than 50 per cent. in non-pilot regions. The facts speak for themselves. On the specifics of when the assessment will be made, the Electoral Commission is due to report in September. The Government, led by the Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, are carrying out their own inquiry, and we will report to the House when those inquiries are over.

On the question of the regional assemblies Bill, that will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny. Yesterday, I promised the Liaison Committee a timetable for that, and the expectation is that it will be published and available for pre-legislative scrutiny before the recess. That will give plenty of time for voters who will be voting on regional assemblies—and I hope that they will vote yes—to know what they are voting for, which is a voice for their own regions and, therefore, a stronger voice for their own interests.

I think that I have dealt with the matters raised, but I cannot read my own writing on the last point.

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