Roger Gale (North Thanet, Conservative)

I invite hon. Members to ensure that all their electronics are switched off or in silent mode. Hon. Gentlemen may remove their jackets while I am in the Chair, although I cannot, of course, speak for Mrs. Anderson, who will exercise her own judgment.

Meg Munn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Sheffield, Heeley, Labour)

I beg to move,

That—

(1) during proceedings on the Equality Bill, in addition to its first meeting on Tuesday 29th November at 10.30 a.m., the Standing Committee shall meet on Tuesday 29th November at 4.00 p.m., Thursday 1st December at 8.55 a.m. and 1.00 p.m., Tuesday 6th December at 10.30 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. and Thursday 8th December at 8.55 a.m. and 1.00 p.m.;

(2) the proceedings shall be taken in the order shown below and shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 4.00 p.m. on Thursday 8th December.

Clauses 1 and 2; Schedule 1; Clauses 3 to 31; Schedule 2; Clauses 32 to 40; Schedule 3; Clauses 41 to 89; Schedule 4; Clauses 90 to 93; Remaining proceedings on the Bill.

Good morning, Mr. Gale. I warmly welcome you to the Chair and am pleased that you will supervise this morning’s discussions. I also welcome all members of the Committee. Several of my hon. Friends warmly supported the Bill on Second Reading, and I am grateful to them. Many Opposition Members who are present also took part then. I hope that our proceedings will provide a further opportunity to ensure that the Bill does what it is intended to. I was pleased that on Second Reading that, with a few exceptions, hon. Members supported the Bill in principle. I am also pleased that several of those Members are on the Committee, particularly the hon. Members for Epping Forest (Mrs. Laing) and for Romsey (Sandra Gidley).

There is wide support for the Bill among stakeholders, including business. I look forward to a constructive debate that will enable the Committee to move forward without, of course, restricting opportunities to raise points and review it as thoroughly as is appropriate. Members of the Committee will have noticed that the programme motion does not contain any knives. That gives us the flexibility to consider issues that deserve particular discussion and to move more swiftly over issues of lesser significance. The motion follows the pattern used in the Committee that considered the Bill in the other place. I hope that all hon. Members agree that it is appropriate to the proper scrutiny of the Bill, and I commend it to the Committee.

Eleanor Laing (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Scotland; Epping Forest, Conservative)

I echo the Minister’s words and welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Gale. I am sure that the whole Committee will be delighted to serve under you.

I do not oppose the programme motion. The Minister explained extremely well the way in which the Bill has been debated hitherto. The Opposition, of course, prefer programme motions not to contain knives, if I may use the colloquial expression, but as we broadly agree on what large parts of the Bill say and try to do, I suspect that they will not require detailed scrutiny. On other parts, however, although we agree in principle, we have considerable concerns about the detail and may require more time for debate.

I have one further point to make. The Committee has been timetabled to sit for four days but is starting today, even though Second Reading took place only one week ago yesterday. I appreciate that there are reasons for that, but the convention used to be that there would be two clear weekends between Second Reading and the beginning of a Bill’s Committee stage. There were good reasons for that: while the Government have the help of a great many learned and able civil servants in preparing a Bill, the Opposition parties—the minority parties—and anyone else who is entitled to table an amendment or to be involved in scrutinising a Bill have no such administrative and research support. The time between Second Reading and Committee is important in allowing Opposition parties, and anyone from any other part of the House, properly to consider a Bill.

I appreciate that that is not a matter for the Minister, because she did not decide that the Committee should start today, but it is perhaps one for you, Mr. Gale. In this instance, the usual channels may argue that Second Reading took place on a Monday, so that the Committee of Selection had plenty of time to choose the wonderful Members who are on the Committee this morning. I appreciate that that is technically correct, because selection takes place on a Wednesday. However, last Friday was a non-sitting day, so it was not available for tabling amendments. Furthermore, the House rose at 4.20 pm on Thursday, so there was very little sitting time after the end of Second Reading late on Monday night—in effect, two and a half working days—in which to table amendments for this morning.

I suspect that it is useful for the Government to be able to reduce the ability of those who want to hold them to account. The Government have partly stifled debate on the Bill by leaving only two and a half working days—perhaps two and three quarter days—in which to table amendments.

Having said that, eight sittings in four days is sufficient for such a Bill as this, the intention behind which has achieved broad consensus.

Roger Gale (North Thanet, Conservative)

Order. We are only 15 minutes into our consideration of the Bill, and already two errors have been made, which is pretty good going. Hon. Members will be pleased to know that the first was made by me, which proves that we are all fallible. I forgot formally to put the question a moment ago.

The hon. Member for Epping Forest made the second error, which I should correct for the record. It is possible for any Member to table an amendment on a non-sitting day so long as the House is in Session, but that in no way editorialises or comments on the rest of her remarks.