Table
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
8:55 am
Mrs Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham, Conservative)
I, too, welcome you, Mr. Griffiths, to the Chair today, and also Mr. Atkinson, whom we will be seeing at other sittings. I hope that I speak for the Opposition Benches when I say that we hope to cause both of you as little trouble as possible. However, we cannot promise that we will cause no trouble whatever.
The Bill is exceedingly long. It has six parts, 181 clauses and 12 schedules, and it is an extremely complex piece of legislation, as has been evidenced by the tortuous route that it has taken to reach Committee.
The official Opposition are content with the programme motion at this stage, but that might not always be the case. Already, 186 amendments have been tabled without the benefit of any amendments on behalf of the 65 Labour rebels. It is sad that they may not have a voice, but I anticipate that there may be an opportunity for Members, such as the hon. Member for Ealing, North, to table some amendments. I want to ensure that we have time to discuss those amendments, as my hon. Friend the Member for West Chelmsford (Mr. Burns) so ably said in his opening remarks on this programme motion.
Discussions have taken place through the usual channels, and I am gratified to know that the
Government are willing, at any stage during the Bill, as I understand it, to revisit the programme motion and consider the number of sittings that we have allocated for discussing the various parts of the Bill. We are pleased that 10 of the 20 sittings so far programmed are devoted to the important section on foundation hospitals, an issue on which there is so much dissent in the Labour party. However, I am also grateful to the Government that we are able to reserve the position and consider further sittings, even though that may involve Mr. Griffiths and Mr. Atkinson sitting for longer than they might have anticipated. I felt at this stage that it was fair to put that on the record, because we were so pleased that we had had such a generous offer from the Government, particularly as I feel sure that there will be more amendments representing the views of the 65 Labour rebels who voted for the amendment on Second Reading.