Planning Bill
10:30 am
John Butterfill (Bournemouth West, Conservative)
Before we begin, I will make some preliminary announcements. First, hon. and right hon. Members may remove their jackets during Committee sittings if they wish. Please ensure that all mobile phones, pagers and any other things that are likely to make a noise are switched to silent mode or switched off. There is a money resolution and a Ways and Means resolution and copies are available in the room. I assume that they are in the centre and at the side.
I remind hon. Members that, as a general rule, adequate notice must be given of amendments. My fellow Chairman and I do not intend to call starred amendments, including any that might be reached in an afternoon sitting. I also remind hon. Members that this is one of three Bills in this Session that has been selected for a further experiment with explanatory statements on amendments. All members of the Committee have been sent a leaflet giving further details of the experiment. Copies of the leaflet are available in the Committee Room and in the Public Bill Office. Hon. Members might also wish to seek advice from the Clerk of the Committee.
We are still in the early stages of taking oral evidence in Public Bill Committees. This is my first experience of it, so we are all on a learning curve. It might help if I explain briefly what is proposed, so that we are all clear. First, the Committee will be asked to consider the programme motion on the amendment paper, for which debate is limited to half an hour. We will then proceed to a motion to report written evidence and a motion to permit the Committee to deliberate in private in advance of the oral evidence sessions, which I hope that we can move formally. Assuming that that motion is agreed to, the Committee will move to a private sitting. Once the Committee has deliberated, the witnesses and members of the public will be invited back into the room and our oral evidence session will commence. If the Committee agrees to the programme motion, the Committee will hear oral evidence today and on Thursday before reverting next week to the more familiar proceedings of clause-by-clause scrutiny.