Evan Harris

The Equality Bill, as the Leader of the House will know, has 15 parts, 21 chapters, 207 clauses and 28 schedules. I raised with her the importance of full scrutiny of the Bill on Report on 11, 18 and 25 June, 2 July and 15 October, as well as on 16 July, when she said:

"we will want to ensure that we make the Bill an exemplar of how the House should scrutinise Bills on Report".-[ Official Report, 16 July 2009; Vol. 496, c. 456.]

As far as I know, there has been no consultation with my party or the Conservative party on the fact that only one day is being given for Report, and no consultation so far on how we are going to get through the 30 new clauses, even before Government new clauses are considered, and the 37 amendments that have already been tabled. Can she assure us that more days will be given for the scrutiny of the Bill?

— from debate entitled “Business of the House”

The three speeches/headings immediately before

  1. 1 earlier: Harriet Harman

    A written statement? [Hon. Members: "Hear, hear!"] No, what I said had a question mark-"A written statement?" I am not sure-I think that what I will do is have a meeting. I think the position is perfectly clear, but it might help the House if I could go through- [Interruption.] I know hon. Members are resisting, but it might help the House if I could go through the proposals and say very briefly which ones might need legislation and which do not. Members are calling for information, but then they are resisting my giving it.

    I do not believe that recommendation 4 of the report, for IPSA to

    "commission a commercial agency to provide and maintain rented accommodation"

    for MPs requires legislation, because IPSA already has the power to set up such an agency. I have already said that I do not believe the proposal to have no more employment of family members requires legislation, because it can be made a condition of paying a salary that an employee is not a family member.

    As for ensuring that there is no dual mandate, Sir Christopher Kelly says that that is a matter for the next Parliament, not this. I do not believe that legislation is needed for a new statutory duty for IPSA to

    "support MPs efficiently, cost-effectively and transparently",

    because it already has that duty. I do not believe that we need to legislate on the House retaining responsibility for the code of conduct and the Register of Members' Financial Interests, but we can accept Christopher Kelly's proposal and not bring into effect the change that would take responsibility for that code of conduct away from the House and give it to IPSA.

    I do not want to trespass on hon. Members' good nature by going through the other page and a half of my notes, but they will get the drift. The point is that we accept what Sir Christopher Kelly is suggesting and we want to get on with it, but we do not want to legislate if that is unnecessary because the power in question already exists under the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009.

  2. 2 earlier: Douglas Hogg

    A written statement.

  3. 3 earlier: Harriet Harman

    I thank the hon. Gentleman for his suggestion that he will send me a list of the issues that are considered to require further legislation, but he does not need to do so, because that was in Sir Christopher Kelly's report, to which, obviously, I have paid close attention. Perhaps it would assist the House if I went through some of those points and said which of them I do not believe will require legislation and which ones possibly will, in the next Session.

    First, there is the proposal for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to- [Interruption.] Okay, well, perhaps I will arrange a-

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