Part of Fuel and Electricity (Control) Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 November 1973.
Hon. Sam Silkin
, Camberwell Dulwich
12:00,
29 November 1973
I am again grateful to the Minister, particularly if what he says is to be taken as an assurance that two or three weeks will be the limit of the period during which the Department will be able to deal with all these cases. I do not want to hold him precisely to that, but I am glad to know that, broadly speaking, that is the period which the Department has in mind.
I have made my point and the Minister has given me an immediate answer. I ask only that the report of this short debate will be read in his Department, and if it is felt that an improvement on what he has told the Committee can be made, he can be sure that many people will be extremely grateful. In view of the undertaking which has been given, I beg to ask leave to withdraw my Amendment. In conclusion, I echo what the Minister said, and say "Sir Myer, good night".
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
