Greater London Authority Bill
2:00 pm
Michael Gove (Shadow Minister (Housing), Communities and Local Government; Surrey Heath, Conservative)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Mr. O’Hara. May I put on the record my thanks to the Minister for the gracious way in which she has acknowledged that this situation has arisen? Opposition Members completely understand that there was no intention to mislead or to impede the flow of the Committee’s proceedings—we know that this is just one of those things.
More broadly, and depending, obviously, on progress in Committee, we will have an opportunity to discuss all the planning clauses, I hope, next week. During that time, there will be an opportunity to debate the order. There are amendments standing in our name that would delete specific clauses. If for any reason our amendments are not accepted by the Government, we recognise that there may be an opportunity to propose more specific amendments on Report with the aim of amending the order once those clauses stand part of the Bill. I hope that that will be acceptable. If for any reason it is not, perhaps I could be given guidance to that effect.