Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill
10:30 am
Mark Francois (Shadow Minister, Treasury; Rayleigh, Conservative)
I, too, welcome you, Mr. Hood, and other members of the Committee to our deliberations. I look forward to my debut serving under your chairmanship, as we examine this brief but nevertheless important paving Bill.
The programme motion has been discussed through the usual channels and in the Programming Sub-Committee, and it appears to allow sufficient time to debate a three-clause Bill. I should like to raise a procedural point, however, with regard to the status of Public Bill Committees, of which this is one of the first. I understand that the programme motion deals with the related issues, but I should like to make a point about the change from the Standing Committee procedure for examining Bills to Public Bill Committee procedure, which is now coming into operation.
The Chairman of Ways and Means recently wrote to all members of the Committee—including, I trust, yourself, Mr. Hood—to outline how the procedure is intended to operate henceforth. The main difference between an old Standing Committee and a Public Bill Committee is that the latter has additional powers to take evidence, which includes examining witnesses, before undertaking detailed scrutiny of the legislation and the explanatory memorandum.
A large number of organisations have expressed reservations about the planning gains supplement, which the Bill will facilitate, and the Minister will hear a few of those representations during our deliberations. The recent guidance from the Chairman of Ways and Means, which was forwarded to the Committee via the Committee Office scrutiny unit on 25 January, indicates that the new procedure for calling witnesses should apply to legislation that was introduced after Christmas 2006. I see several hon. Labour Members indicating assent; clearly, they too have read the guidelines.
The Bill was read the First time on 12 December, so it appears that we have missed the boat for calling witnesses in person. I appreciate that we are talking about a brand-new procedure that is bedding in. I welcome it in principle and have no complaint about our inability to call witnesses in respect of the Bill. The new procedure should produce better law by giving Members of Parliament a chance to hear from experts before debating changes to the legislation. In that sense, it is a good thing.
May I, through you, Mr. Hood, ask the Chairmen’s Panel to consider the suggestion that more should be done to promulgate the new procedure to the public? I suspect that many interested parties do not know that it has been introduced. It would be valuable for the Public Bill Committees that follow ours if more members of the public and interest groups knew that the procedure had been changed, so that people dealing with subsequent legislation have the chance to call witnesses—something that we, unfortunately, have not been able to do.