Hunting Bill
8:55 am
Mr Alun Michael (Minister of State (Rural Affairs), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Cardiff South and Penarth, Labour/Co-operative)
I beg to move,
That—
(1) the Committee recommends that the programme order [16th December] in relation to the Hunting Bill be amended as follows
In paragraph (2) of the order, for '13th February' substitute '27th February';
(2) the Order of the Committee [7th January] be amended as follows—
In paragraph (1), at the end, add '(except that the Committee shall not meet on Tuesday 18th February or Thursday 20th February)';
In paragraph (3), leave out '13th' and insert '27th'.
During previous sittings, hon. Members made it clear that they wanted further time to consider all aspects of the Bill. We discussed that in the Programming Sub-Committee following the adjournment of our previous sitting and it was felt sensible to make provision for the Committee to sit on Tuesday and Thursday following the short recess. Clearly, no one wants to encourage the Committee to sit beyond the necessary time to engage fully with all the issues that hon. Members wish to raise, but the proposal allows a considerable degree of flexibility to the Committee that I believe is welcomed by all those involved.