Work and Families Bill
10:30 am
Meg Munn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Sheffield, Heeley, Labour)
I beg to move,
That—
(1)during proceedings on the Work and Families Bill the Standing Committee shall (in addition to its first meeting at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday 13th December) meet—
(a)at 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday 13th December;
(b)at 9.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. on Thursday 15th December
(c)at 9.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. on Tuesday 20th December
(2)the proceedings shall be taken in the following order; Clauses 1 to 11; Schedule 1; Clauses 12 to 15; Schedule 2; Clauses 16 to 20; new Clauses; new Schedules; remaining proceedings on the Bill;
(3)the proceedings shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 5.00 p.m. on Tuesday 20th December.
Good morning, Mr. Bayley. I warmly welcome you to the Chair and am genuinely delighted that you will supervise this morning’s discussion. I also welcome all members of the Committee, and the Opposition spokespeople. It seems that only last week we were in another Committee elsewhere—which, indeed, we were.
Several of my hon. Friends warmly supported the Bill on Second Reading. I am grateful to them; several Opposition Members who are present also took part in that debate. There is wide support for the Bill from many organisations, including from business. I look forward to a constructive debate that allows the Committee to scrutinise the Bill thoroughly. Members of the Committee will have noticed that the programme motion contains no knives, and no doubt they will welcome that. That gives us flexibility to consider fully issues that deserve particular discussion, and to move more swiftly over issues of lesser significance. I commend the motion to the Committee