Business of the House

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 9 March 2006.

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Photo of Geoff Hoon Geoff Hoon Lord Privy Seal 11:30, 9 March 2006

I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman has come to the House in such a bad mood. He is normally a kind, avuncular and friendly figure. I was about to congratulate him on his reappointment, but perhaps, in the light of his mood, I need to commiserate with him. If he had accepted the advice of the House to stand in the election for leader of his party, he might have got a different job, but, nevertheless, we are pleased to see him back.

There has been a programme motion on the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, as the hon. Gentleman well knows, and the House has already resolved those matters, but I am sure that that can be looked at afresh if there is a strong feeling that it is necessary.

Obviously, the extradition treaty involves significant negotiation with the United States. That reflects the different constitutional arrangements that exist in the United States. It is well known that the United Kingdom's system of dealing with treaties in general is fairly straightforward. That is not always the case for those countries that have the benefit of a rather more complex written constitution. No doubt the Liberal Democrats will reflect on that when they recommend having complex written constitutions.

Council tax rebate is clearly a matter for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer and he will deal with that in due course. As for the business of the House, that is obviously a matter for the House, as I report it to the House regularly.

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Julian Todd
Posted on 15 May 2006 9:18 am (Report this annotation)

The programme motion he is referring to is:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2006-02-09a.1103.3

which gives this bill one day of debates. When the Bill finally gets scheduled 3 months later, it miraculously has two days:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2006-05-04a.1103.2

Hooray!