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Timetable
1. Proceedings on the Bill on Second Reading, in Committee, on consideration and on Third Reading shall be completed at this day's sitting and shall be brought to a conclusion, if not previously concluded, at Six o'clock.
Timing of proceedings and questions to be put
(a) it shall, notwithstanding Standing Order No. 63 (Committal of bills), stand committed to a Committee of the whole House without any Question being put, and
3. On the conclusion of proceedings in Committee the Chairman shall report the Bill to the House without putting any Question and, if the Bill is reported with Amendments, the House shall proceed to consider the Bill as amended without any Question being put.
4. For the purpose of bringing any proceedings to a conclusion in accordance with paragraph 1 the Speaker or Chairman shall forthwith put the following Questions (but no others)—
5. On a Motion so made for a new Clause or a new Schedule, the Chairman or Speaker shall put only the Question that the Clause or Schedule be added to the Bill.
Subsequent stages
6.—(1) Any further Message from the Lords on the Bill shall be considered forthwith without any Question being put.
(2) Proceedings on any further Message from the Lords shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion one hour after their commencement.
7.—(1) This paragraph applies for the purpose of bringing any proceedings to a conclusion in accordance with paragraph 6.
(2) The Speaker shall first put forthwith any Question which has already been proposed from the Chair and not yet decided.
(3) 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.
(4) The Speaker shall then put forthwith the Question on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown on or relevant to any of the remaining items in the Lords Message.
(5) The Speaker shall put forthwith the Question, That this House agrees with the Lords in all remaining Lords Proposals.
Reasons Committee
8.—(1) 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 in relation to the Bill and the appointment of its Chairman.
(2) A Committee appointed to draw up Reasons shall report before the conclusion of the sitting at which it is appointed.
(3) Proceedings in the Committee shall, if not previously brought to a conclusion, be brought to a conclusion 30 minutes after their commencement.
(4) For the purpose of bringing any proceedings to a conclusion in accordance with sub paragraph (3) the Chairman shall—
(a) first put forthwith any Question which has been proposed from the Chair but not yet 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.
Miscellaneous
9. Paragraph (1) of Standing Order No. 15 (Exempted business) shall apply to any proceedings to which this Order applies.
10. The proceedings on any Motion made by a Minister of the Crown for varying or supplementing the provisions of this Order shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion one hour after their commencement and paragraph (1) of Standing Order No. 15 shall apply to those proceedings.
11. Standing Order No. 82 (Business Committee) shall not apply in relation to any proceedings to which this Order applies.
12. No Motion shall be made to alter the order in which proceedings on the Bill are taken or to re commit the Bill.
13. No dilatory Motion shall be made in relation to proceedings to which this Order applies except by a Minister of the Crown; and the Question on any such Motion shall be put forthwith.
(a) a Motion for the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 24 (Adjournment on specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration) has been stood over to Seven o'clock, Three o'clock or Four o'clock (as the case may be), but
15. If the House is adjourned, or the sitting is suspended, before the conclusion of any proceedings to which this Order applies, 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.
16. Proceedings to which this Order applies shall not be interrupted under any Standing Order relating to the sittings of the House.
I shall be brief. In seeking the House's agreement to the allocation of time motion, I shall explain the urgency with which the Government are seeking to progress the Bill and why it is necessary to take it through all its stages in the House today.
Currently, only 85 per cent. of eligible individuals are registered in Northern Ireland. That compares with around 93 per cent. in the rest of the United Kingdom. There are important local elections due in Northern Ireland in May and we think that it is important that as many electors as possible are given the opportunity to vote. For that reason, I made my statement to the House in November.
To make this possible, we have decided to put back on to the register around 81,000 electors who did not re-register during last year's annual canvass. However, to have the chance to vote, they must be back on the register in time for it to be used for those elections. The
24 Feb 2005 : Column 495
register is published on 1 April 2005. It is therefore essential that this Bill becomes law as quickly as possible.
I concede that we had intended to include these provisions in a much more comprehensive Bill that would have come before the House if the talks between the political parties had been successful. Unfortunately, as we are only too well aware, that was not to be, so we have had to produce this Bill as fast as we could to strengthen democracy in Northern Ireland and to do so in time for the May local elections.
Mr. David Trimble (Upper Bann) (UUP): I hope that I am anticipating the Minister, but I intervene in case he is not going to make this point. The Democratic Unionist party-Sinn Fein deal broke down in December, and he would have known at that stage that he would not be able to proceed with the larger Bill to which he referred. I presume that the clauses relating to this matter were already in hand. Surely, therefore, the Government could have introduced this measure earlier so as to proceed through the House in the normal way rather than having to proceed in the extraordinary way employed this week, going through the other place in two days and this place in just one.
Mr. Spellar: We had to get the exact details right, which we had to do in consultation with the parties. As the right hon. Gentleman is aware, we discussed that with all political parties and those meetings had to be consistent with the meetings that we were holding with regard to broader matters. There is also significant pressure on parliamentary counsel at the moment, with a considerable amount of legislation relating to Northern Ireland as well as elsewhere.
Those are the reasons for the delay. The reason that we need to get the legislation in now is, as I said, to have the register right for the local elections. Accordingly, I commend the motion to the House.
1.29 pm
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