Submission from Huw Irranca-Davies MP
Thank you for your letter of 8 January 2004
in respect of the ongoing consultation on the sitting hours of
the Chamber of the House of Commons.
I am still firmly of the opinion that the House
has made the right decision to revise its sitting hours, as the
new hours are more representative of the working lives of many
of our constituents, and allow a small degree of flexibility for
those Members with families living within striking distance of
Westminster. As you have shown from your statements as Leader
of the House on the floor of the Chamber, and in your letter of
8 January 2004, you are fully aware of the genuine concerns that
some modifications are needed to enable the new sitting hours
to work more effectively. Could I therefore make the following
suggestions:
1. More use should be made of the Tuesday
evening until 10.00 pm, however my preference is that this would
be "un-whipped" business by and large, which could encompass:
(i) A trial period making Fridays constituency
days only, in which case Private Members' Bills could be transferred
to Tuesday evenings from the end of the adjournment debate from
7.00 pm until 10.00 pm.
(ii) Making Wednesday mornings available
for Select Committees to meet, which would require the transfer
of the PLP to another time slot.
(iii) Could I suggest that a suitable time
slot for the PLP would be Monday, late afternoon, which could
also help make the PLP more effective by addressing the work of
the week ahead.
2. Improved coordination between the Select
Committees, and the government and opposition whips, to allow
more efficient operation of Select and Standing Committees alongside
the timetable for the Chamber.
3. That morning Select Committees should
begin at 9.15 am or 9.25 am in order that London MPs can see their
children off to school in the morning.
4. Greater innovation on the times and availability
of Line of Route tours, including a pilot period trialling Line
of Route tours on weekends.
I do hope that these comments are constructive
and helpful, and could I finally stress that it is hardly appropriate
at this relatively early moment in time to jettison the raft of
welcome innovations that were brought in fairly recently in respect
of the sitting times of the Chamber. Whilst we should be seeking
to modify the operation of the House and the sitting hours, it
is not desirable to simply regress to the antiquated hours that
we inherited from the previous century.
January 2004
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