Part of Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:00 am on 9 March 2010.
Stephen Timms
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) (Digital Britain) (also HM Treasury), Financial Secretary (HM Treasury) (also in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills)
10:00,
9 March 2010
I, too, am delighted to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Mr. Chope. I welcome and applaud the pioneering work of my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North over an extended period, recently supported by my hon. Friend the Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne).
I also agree with much of what the hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire said in his remarks. The Government agree that the Bill should mirror the internationally agreed HIPC initiative, as the Clause specifies. The aim is to ensure that all creditors provide debt relief in line with the initiative, as the vast Majority of creditors are already doing. I welcome the clarification of the scope and the illumination that has come from the debate on the Amendment, which we had a few minutes ago.
I also agree that the Bill should not apply to debts taken on after its commencement, as we do not want to deter new lending to countries. Therefore, it is right to exclude new lending. However, I very much support the clause and hope that we can agree to it.
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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.
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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.
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.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
