Patents Bill
10:30 am
Mr Brian Cotter (Shadow Minister (Trade & Industry), Trade & Industry; Weston-Super-Mare, Liberal Democrat)
I, too, am pleased I am to be under your chairmanship, Mr. Amess. I was tempted to go out into the sunshine this morning, but I thought, ''No, this Committee will be so lively and well run that I must attend,'' so here I am.
Patently, we have come to a decision on whether we should say ''pat-tents'' or ''pay-tents''. I am already beginning to forget which it is; ''pay-tents'', I think. I congratulate the right hon. Member for North-East Hampshire (Mr. Arbuthnot) on having done the work on that.
As regards the timing in the programme motion, I expressed my concern on Second Reading that we were waiting for a key report. It had been promised to us in November, March and April; there is now talk of it arriving in the summer. It worries me that such a key report will not be available before the end of our discussions on the Bill. Apart from that, however, I am happy to proceed on the basis of the programme motion.