Clause 17 - Calculation of time periods
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
6:30 pm
David Heath (Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs & Shadow Leader of the House, Law Officers (Constitutional Affairs); Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s support, but this is more than important—it is essential. I am not a great buyer of pigs in pokes, and I am rather fed up with the Bill, because I am being asked to buy a great number of pigs in a substantial number of pokes. Will the Minister remove at least some of the aforesaid pigs from their pokes and give us a clear assurance that if the Leader of the House has not done this work already, he will do so as a matter of expedition and will, perhaps, write to you, Sir Nicholas, as Chairman of this Committee, and Committee members explaining the draft proposals for the changes in Standing Orders, because that is absolutely instrumental to our understanding of the safeguards that are to be put in place as a result of the Bill?
I repeat the point, which has repeatedly been made throughout our discussions on the Bill, that we are not prepared to accept assurances as to what will be parliamentary procedure. We want to see it in black and white and make sure that it accords with our expectation of what will happen in practice when dealing with orders of this kind.