Enterprise Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:45 am on 16 May 2002.
'After paragraph 12 of Schedule 7 to the 1998 Act (the Competition Commission) there is inserted—
''Annual reports
12A (1) The Commission shall make to the Secretary of State a report for each financial year on its activities during the year
(2) The annual report must be made before the end of August next following the financial year to which it relates.
(3) The Secretary of State shall lay a copy of the annual report before Parliament and arrange for the report to be published.''.'.—[Miss Melanie Johnson.]
Brought up, and read the First time.
Question proposed, That the clause be read a Second time.
Nigel Waterson
Conservative, Eastbourne
We need not detain the Committee long. It is sensible that any public body produce an annual report so that we can get to grips with what it is doing. My hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) was eager to debate this, but I understand that he is indisposed and, sadly, will not be able to do so. The
burden of his song was to ask what the Competition Commission will be doing that warrants an annual report. However, we covered that ground in sometimes hilarious detail on a previous occasion, so I shall not pursue the matter.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
