Sale of Student Loans Bill
10:30 am
Anne Begg (Aberdeen South, Labour)
Before we begin, I will make a few preliminary announcements taking us through what we are going to do. I am happy for hon. Members to remove their jackets. Will they ensure that their mobile phones and pagers are turned off or switched to silent? I remind the Committee that there is a money resolution in connection with the Bill, copies of which are available in the room. I also remind hon. Members that adequate notice should be given for amendments. As a general rule, I do not intend to call starred amendments.
As we are still in the early days of taking oral evidence in Public Bill Committees, it might help if I briefly explain what is proposed, so that the procedure is clear. First, the Committee will be asked to consider a programme motion, which is on the amendment paper, for which debate is limited to half an hour. We will then proceed to a motion to report written evidence. I am glad that the Minister has just come in as he will propose the motions. They are followed by a motion to permit the Committee to deliberate in private, in advance of the oral evidence session. I hope that we can take all those stages formally.
Assuming that the motion is agreed to, the Committee will move into private session. When we get through the formal part of our proceedings, we will ask the public to withdraw and the Committee will decide how it will ask questions. Once it has deliberated, the witnesses and members of the public can come in. At that stage, the oral evidence session will begin.
If the Committee agrees to the programme motion, we will hear oral evidence first. As there is only one set of witnesses, there has been a discussion, through the usual channels, that if appropriate we will take a 10-minute break and then go into the line-by-line consideration of the Bill as part of this morning’s sitting. That has not happened before in a Public Bill Committee, and it is up to the Committee to agree to it. We have moved rooms to allow us that flexibility, should the Committee so wish. If the Committee does not agree to that, we will move into line-by-line scrutiny in the afternoon sitting. Those are decisions for the Committee.