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This is the thirty-first report which we have produced in this Parliament. Our reports have ranged widely across the practice and procedure of the House, and have resulted in considerable procedural change. Our intention in bringing forward this report is to inform the House, and especially our successors in the new Parliament, of those matters which we have considered but not brought to a conclusion in this Parliament.
First we consider the ongoing work of monitoring written Parliamentary questions, fulfilling the responsibility which we set ourselves of reporting regularly on the work which we do in this area, which we hope our successors will continue in the new Parliament. We then draw attention to three subjects—private Members' bills, motions "That the House sit in private" and European scrutiny—on which we have done significant work but where further work with the Government is necessary before proposals can be brought to the House. Finally, we invite our successors to continue work which we have not been able to conclude in four areas—programming of legislation, elections to positions in the House, the sub judice rule, and notification of the arrest of Members.
In one of these cases, programming, which is considered at paragraphs 21 to 29 of this report, a further decision of the House to extend the trial of the three-day deadline for amendments at report stage will be necessary before the end of this Parliament in order to enable our successors to bring the matter to a successful conclusion.
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