Flood and Water Management Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:00 pm on 21 January 2010.
Division number 17
Decision Time — New Clause 8
Huw Irranca-Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) (Marine and Natural Environment)
On a point of order, Lady Winterton. I will not detain hon. Members too much longer, but I just want to say that I always enjoy working in Committee. It is where a lot of the detail is done. I have particularly enjoyed our proceedings because we have genuinely improved the Bill, and will improve it further when we bring it back at its subsequent stages. I wish to thank the hon. Members for Vale of York and for Brecon and Radnorshire for their constructive and positive engagement. Even though we have disagreed on some areas, we all want the Bill to succeed and to be in the best shape.
I also want to thank the business managers on both sides of the Committee—the hidden people, including my hon. Friend the Member for Telford—who make the machinery turn. I want to thank you, Lady Winterton, and your colleagues, Mr. Chope and Mr. Martlew, for your great help in achieving such progress. I really want to thank all members of the Committee who have all contributed to the Bill over the past few days of our deliberations, and who will continue to do so to make sure that it is a prime piece of work. They have shown a lot of passion because of their own circumstances, insights from their constituencies and their expertise. The Bill has been a good example of proceedings—[Interruption.] I cannot take interventions on a point of order.
I also thank the people not in the room, but who have been listening to or watching our debates and who have lobbied for the Bill in all its parts. We would not be here if it were not for the pressure that we have had from our constituents throughout the United Kingdom. They will continue to work with us. I wish also to thank briefly members of my team, who are hidden away and who provide me with moments of great inspiration. They do a tremendous amount of hard work. They have also made themselves fully available to other hon. Members throughout the course of the Bill to tease out questions and to answer questions outside our proceedings. I thank the Clerks who have transcribed all my difficult Welsh pronunciations, as I do the Serjeant at Arms and the police who have maintained order among us—a disorderly rabble. We very much look forward to the next stage and to seeing further progress. We wish this vital Bill speedy progress through this place and, hopefully, into Another place.
Anne McIntosh
Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Further to that point of order, Lady Winterton. May I thank you, Mr. Chope and Mr. Martlew for presiding over the proceedings in such a positive way? I should like to congratulate the Minister on getting the Bill through in this form, despite our best endeavours and to thank all members of the Committee—especially my colleagues, who have given me a lot of support, which is much appreciated—for the good spirit in which the proceedings have been conducted.
I should like to echo the Minister’s thanks to the business managers. I think that we were almost short of time, so there is still a lot to debate. I should like to thank the Clerk and his colleagues for all their assistance in ensuring that we kept within time and good order. I should like to thank the Doorkeepers, Hansard and the police. May we especially recognise the work of DEFRA officials in introducing these proposals in very difficult circumstances, given the time pressure that we were under?
I think that this is the first Committee on which my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North has served, so I hope that she has enjoyed the proceedings. Like the Minister, I enjoy the cut and thrust of Committee work. It rather saddens me that this will probably be the last Committee on which I serve as the hon. Member for Vale of York, as my much underwater Constituency will disappear at the election—[Interruption]—not entirely underwater, despite acts of God and other such issues. I am very sad to say that Vale of York will disappear at the next election. The fact that we have had so many episodes and experiences with water has given me a certain insight that I might not have had otherwise.
I should also like to echo the Minister’s remarks and thank all the outside organisations for the interest that they have shown in our work, and we look forward to the next stage of the proceedings.
Martin Horwood
Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Further to that point of order, Lady Winterton. I should like to join in thanking all members of the Committee for the positive atmosphere in which proceedings have been conducted. I thank the Minister and the Bill team in particular for their open and collaborative approach and, I am sure, for a lot of hard work behind the scenes. I suppose that we should also thank the Minister for recently expanding the bounds of acceptable parliamentary language to include some choice Anglo-Saxon words.
I should also like to thank the Officials and Officers of the House for keeping us on the straight and narrow. I thank you, Lady Winterton, and certainly Mr. Martlew—I am not quite sure whether we should thank Mr. Chope, given that his two Divisions on the Floor of the House interrupted our proceedings somewhat, but it would be generous to thank him for his work in the Committee, too.
I should particularly like to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Brecon and Radnorshire for his support and expertise on all things Welsh and rural in particular. I should certainly like to thank my outstanding office team of Victoria White, Harriet Shone and Tom Jenkins, without whose hard work hon. Members would not have heard nearly so much from me. So I suppose that I should finish by thanking all hon. Members for their patience.
Ann Winterton
Conservative, Congleton
As the tail-end Charlie of Chairmen and speaking on behalf of Eric Martlew and my colleague, Christopher Chope, I congratulate the Minister and other members of the Committee on proceeding with great good humour, based on a lot of hard work and good sense, and I am sure that the people of this country would be proud of the fine democratic tradition that they have followed. It is also apposite to thank our Clerk and the Clerks Department for keeping us on the straight and narrow, although we had a bit of a scramble every now and again, the police obviously for keeping everything safe, the Hansard writers and all those who are associated with the work of the Committee. All that remains is for me to say, “Order, order.”
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.
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.
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 House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
The Serjeant at Arms has two main areas of responsibility. First he has duties relating to the order and security of the House of Commons. He is responsible for maintaining order in the Chamber, Galleries, Committee Rooms and precincts of the House of Commons, and the control of access to them. By tradition the post is usually given to an ex-serviceman and the Serjeant at Arms is the only person in the House of Commons allowed to carry a sword. The Serjeant at Arms Department also has housekeeping duties which include the allocation and booking of accommodation for MPs, cleaning of the House and the supply of stationery, laundry and other stores. The office of Serjeant at Arms goes back to 1415 and the reign of Henry V when the Serjeant was responsible for carrying out the orders of the House of Commons, including making arrests. Today he performs several ceremonial duties that date back to the early days of the office. He carries the mace in the Speaker's Procession each day and also into the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament.
The House of Commons.
During a debate members of the House of Commons traditionally refer to the House of Lords as 'another place' or 'the other place'.
Peers return the gesture when they speak of the Commons in the same way.
This arcane form of address is something the Labour Government has been reviewing as part of its programme to modernise the Houses of Parliament.
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.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
