Clause 20 - Duty to make references in
Enterprise Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
On a point of order, Mr. Conway. I am grateful for the welter of letters from the Under-Secretary, some of which are extremely useful, on matters of guidance, draft regulations, and the failing firm issue that was raised last week, but we are entering the territory of a substantial and growing number of Government amendments. When I predicted that there would be many Government amendments, looks of practised scepticism came from those on the Government Benches, but the last tranche was around 40. It would be helpful to know from the Minister how many more Government amendments we should expect, and from you, Mr. Conway, whether, if the number reaches three figures, we would need another meeting of the Programming Sub-Committee. Given the inadequate time that we already have for debate, we may want further to extend the time for dealing with Government amendments.