Pensions Bill
10:30 am
Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield, Conservative)
I welcome all members of the Committee to this first sitting. I have a number of preliminary announcements to make. First, if Members wish to remove their jackets during Committee meetings, I am happy that they should do so. However, it is up to my co-Chairman, Mrs. Janet Anderson, to decide whether that is also part of her instruction. Members should also note that mobile telephones, pagers and other electronic devices should be turned off or switched to silent mode. I become very blind if Members whose phones go off then rise to catch my eye.
I remind the Committee that there is a money resolution and a Ways and Means resolution in connection with this Bill, and copies are available here in the Committee Room. I should also like to remind Members that adequate notice should be given of amendments. As a general rule, I and my fellow Chairman do not intend to call starred amendments.
The process of taking oral evidence in Public Bill Committees is still relatively novel, so I will briefly explain what is proposed so that we can all be clear as to precisely what should go on. The Committee will first be asked to consider the programme motion on the amendment paper, on which debate is limited to half an hour. I will then proceed to a motion to report written evidence, and then a motion to permit the Committee to deliberate in private in advance of the oral evidence sessions, which I hope we can take formally. I look to both sides of the Committee for their agreement. Assuming that the second of these motions is agreed to, the Committee will move into private session. Once the Committee has deliberated, the witnesses and members of the public will be invited back in and our oral evidence session will commence. If the Committee agrees to the programme motion—I hope very much that it will—the Committee will hear oral evidence today and on Thursday, moving on to the more familiar proceeding of clause-by-clause scrutiny next week.
We come now to the programme motion. I understand that an amendment is to be proposed. It would be convenient for the Committee if the Minister moved the motion formally and the Government Whip then moved his amendment.