Planning Bill
10:30 am
John Butterfill (Bournemouth West, Conservative)
The right hon. Gentleman makes a relevant and serious point. We are in the process of developing such procedures, so I apologise on behalf of the authorities that the papers have arrived somewhat later than we would ideally have liked. Two things arise from that. First, when sittings such as this take place immediately after a recess, we ought to consider the possibility of papers being sent to hon. Members’ homes during the recess. It would be helpful to everyone if right hon. and hon. Members could advise the Clerks where they are likely to be during recesses, because it will be no use sending papers to hon. Members’ homes if they are going to be somewhere else. If they will be somewhere where the papers could be sent, we should look at that seriously for the future.
We will have to consider further the question of a timetable. The whole idea is to invite public participation in our processes, so I would not want to set a time restriction which meant that some people were not able to make important contributions for our consideration. However, we will look at the possibility of a timetable for the future.