Submission from Mr Mike Hall MP
Thank you for your letter of 29 June 2004 about
the sitting hours of the House of Commons.
I am a strong supporter of the current sitting
hours of the House of Commons. However since their introduction
there have been a number of occasions when the House has sat beyond
the 7.00 pm finish on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and beyond 6.00
pm on Thursdays to deal with Government business. I believe that
this goes beyond what the House of Commons voted for.
I believe that Select Committee meetings should
be on Monday and Wednesday and Standing Committee meetings on
Tuesday and Thursday. There should be some way of making this
happen so that Select Committees and Standing Committees do not
clash.
I believe the one area of sitting modernisation
that has not been successful or necessary is the September fortnight.
This is a costly gesture in terms of opening up Parliament for
two weeks. It stops all maintenance work on the building itself
which in turn increases the cost of that necessary work. We should
scrap the September fortnight.
I hope the above is helpful.
July 2004
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