Submission from Dr Brian Iddon MP
I am responding to your letter, dated 8 January
2004, about the sitting hours in the House and have the following
comments:
1. The current hours, especially sitting
on both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, cause me several problems.
I raised one of them with you as a Business Question recently,
namely the fact that I cannot book the Line of Route on a Monday
(the only day that my Constituents can travel to London and back
in the day and arrive in time for a guided tour) until next July.
That rules out the usual format (which starts with a tour of the
Palace) for a visit by our Sixth Form College politics/economics
students. Some of them will have sat their A-Levels in any case
by July.
I do not spend as much time with my London PA
to discuss case work; she works a normal day, and it is unreasonable
to expect her to stay late in the evenings.
There is less time to attend daytime meetings
and conferences and less time to spend contacting outside people
who work normal office hours.
2. My preferred preference would be to go
back to the old hours, thus freeing up again both Tuesday and
Wednesday mornings.
3. However, I realise that that would probably
be unpopular. Therefore, as a compromise, I would accept returning
to the old hours on Tuesdays only.
4. I am not in favour of transferring other
business to Tuesday (or Wednesday evenings). I am happy to attend
whenever necessary on Fridays for Private Members' Bill business
and Adjournment Debates that I am interested in. In my opinion
we should give the impression to our Constituents that Parliament
works usually five days a week when sitting.
However, with a return to normal hours on Tuesdays,
I would accept that we could use Wednesday evenings for Adjournment
Debates that currently get "lost" in Westminster Hall
(ie they are not watched by as many people on the Parliamentary
Channel as they would be if proceedings were live from the main
Chamber).
January 2004
| 
