If he will invite the Select Committee on Modernisation of the House to examine the case for providing more time for private Members' Bills to be considered on the Floor of the House.

The new Modernisation Committee was established on 13 July, and has since met twice. It is currently discussing a programme of work, and is happy to receive representations on that from all colleagues. Currently, I have no plans to propose changes to the time available for consideration of private Member's Bills.

Over the years, private Member's legislation has established some important rights and, sometimes, duties, for citizens of this country. I have been a Member of the House for more than 13 years, and apart from a short time when I inhabited the front bench, I have dutifully entered the ballot every year to try to get selected to put forward a Bill, but have never been successful even in securing the last place. The House would benefit if more time were available for private Member's legislation. Will my right hon. Friend ask the Committee to consider whether Wednesday evenings, on which we no longer sit, could be used to discuss private Member's Bills?

I sympathise with my hon. Friend's difficulties with the ballot. I have the same problem with the lottery every Saturday evening. His practical suggestion of finding extra time was considered by the previous Modernisation Committee, which examined the idea of moving private Member's Bills to Tuesday evenings rather than Wednesday evenings, although the principle remains the same. It concluded that such a move would

"fundamentally change the character of the proceedings, with the intrusion of whipping into time which has so far been at the free disposal of backbenchers".

Obviously, the House has since come to a different conclusion as to the pattern of hours of business. Given the history of the issue, I do not propose to disturb those arrangements for the moment, as I do not want to plunge the House into a further debate on our hours of work.