Clause 11 - Supplementary
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
7:15 pm
Mr Keith Hill (Minister of State (Housing and Planning), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Streatham, Labour)
On a point of order, Mr. Hurst. I am delighted to be able to raise this point of order to express my thanks to a range of persons in the Committee. First, on behalf of the entire Committee I express our thanks to you and to your colleagues for their excellent, wise and tolerant chairmanship. I also express a genuine word of thanks for their support, not least their patience, during the proceedings. I offer a particular word of thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham (Paul Clark), the Government Whip on the Committee, and I would like to extend that to all the usual channels involved in the Committee.
I would also like to express my thanks to the Opposition. I thank both parties for their courtesy, open-mindedness and generosity towards myself in a variety of circumstances, and I thank them for the extremely serious and responsible way in which they have contributed to our proceedings. I express the thanks of the Committee to the Clerks, who have served us well, the Hansard Reporters, the Badge Messengers and the police officers who have supervised our proceedings.
Finally, I express my thanks to the silent ones—those who officially do not exist, but without whom a Minister would in reality scarcely exist, or at least not for very long. They have proved a consistent inspiration throughout the proceedings.