European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill
9:30 am
Mr Christopher Leslie (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Shipley, Labour)
I beg to move,
That—
(1) during proceedings on the European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill, the Standing Committee, in addition to its first sitting on Tuesday 28th October 2003 at 9.30 a.m., do meet—
(a) on that day at 2.30 p.m.; and
(b) on Thursday, 30th October 2003 at 9.30 a.m. and 2.15 p.m.;
(2) the proceedings shall be taken in the following order, namely Clauses 1 to 8, the Schedule, Clauses 9 to 13, New Clauses and New Schedules, and remaining proceedings on the Bill;
(3) the proceedings, so far as not previously concluded, shall be brought to a conclusion at 4.45 p.m. on Thursday 30th October 2003.
On behalf of the Government, I welcome the Committee. We discussed the Bill on Second Reading relatively recently. As hon. Members will know, it is relatively short compared with other legislation, having 13 clauses in total. The Programming Sub-Committee met yesterday to discuss a likely timetable, and the agreement was to have two sittings today and two on Thursday.