Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland)
10:30 am
Mr Des Browne (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Northern Ireland Office; Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Labour)
I beg to move,
That—
(1) during proceedings on the Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Bill the Committee shall, in addition to the first sitting on Tuesday 16th October at half-past Ten o'clock, meet on that day at half-past Four o'clock and on Thursday 18th October at half-past Nine o'clock and half-past Four o'clock;
(2) the proceedings on the Bill in the Standing Committee shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion on Thursday 18th October at Seven o'clock.
I warmly welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Hood, for this short but important Bill. As I am sure you are aware, this is my first experience of a Standing Committee as a Minister. I was reassured to see a fellow Scot in the Chair, as it is possible that the two of us will understand each other during the proceedings. For an unfathomable reason, I was reminded of what may be an apocryphal story—although I hope that it is true—of the Glasgow councillor who was appointed a justice of the peace and to the chair of the borough police court. In his installation speech, he said that he would now have to steer a course between partiality and impartiality.