Speeches by Powell.

“I shall. The business for the week commencing 9 December will include: Monday 9 December—Remaining stages of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill. Tuesday 10 December—Committee of the whole House on the Finance Bill (day one). Wednesday 11 December—Committee of the whole House on the Finance Bill (day two). Thur…”

“We have been trying to do business a bit further in advance as well where possible—two or three weeks instead of just the one week.”

“It is possibly a bit of both. Hopefully, that is what you are really diving into. The language of the scheme says “serious illness”, and whether something is serious enough can be a subjective opinion. Then, perhaps there is something in relation to operation. However, in general, I am not a “thin end of the wedge” sor…”

“We did not want to make it permanent at this point, because we hoped that your Committee would consider the details further, such as its operation, scope and other things, before we then made any kind of scheme permanent. We have a few different schemes, but there are two main ones for proxy votes. First, there is the …”

“It is just that it gets raised a lot, so it is worth getting it all out there.”

“It could potentially have further time, but as I say, I think what we all saw on Friday was that the House wants to take a view. The House does not want to be denied the moment of actually taking a view and things progressing. The worst-case scenario would be the world looking in and, for procedural reasons, we do not …”

“I think there are two points in one there. Let me take the business Committee idea. Obviously, we have business questions every week—they come around bloomin’ quickly, I have to say—and they are now quite lengthy sessions. Everyone gets in, and it lasts an hour or an hour and a quarter—it is me on my own answering ques…”

“I am looking at next year already.”

“You’re questioning yourself, Sir Christopher!”

“That is one of the other things that has changed—not just the role of MPs, but the make-up of the Commons. When a lot of our procedures were considered, we really had two parties—the Government and the Opposition—and obviously we now have many others. It is really important to hear from the smaller parties, and I found…”

“Yes. That is the idea—to take that holistic view and think about what is doable and important and about how some of those things fit in with each other, and to try to prioritise. Otherwise it is endless, isn’t it? On these issues, I am conscious that our procedures have stood the test of time and are a really important…”

“One hundred per cent. There are some other important issues around standards, outside interests and further improvements to the ICGS, as well as other things that perhaps only the Modernisation Committee can look at in one or two of those areas, because there is no other Committee that covers them. Anything procedural …”

“Yes, a number of issues have been raised so far, and we are expecting a lot more to come in over the next two weeks—people have still got two weeks to put something in. I hope that colleagues know that there is an anonymous form for people to fill in, although it recognises your email address, so Sir Christopher cannot…”

“We may have to slightly feel our way through. In terms of what I would like, I am here before this Committee, and we are discussing areas that you might consider to be some of my priorities, and that kind of thing, so we have that symbiotic relationship. Whenever we are considering procedural issues or other things lik…”

“Good question. The previous Modernisation Committee, which I obviously took the name from, made some very quick progress early on, on necessary things. I think the first thing it did in 1997 was to remove the need for top hats to be worn to make points of order—you probably regret that, don’t you, Sir Christopher? “Bri…”

“That is a good question, and an important part of my job. I want Parliament to be respected and I have been really clear with the Cabinet, special advisers and Ministers—in writing, orally and in other ways—that we expect announcements to be made in the House first. Obviously, where that is not possible—when the House …”

“Obviously there are a few things that we have had to do early on and do quickly. There are loads of motions in my name today, I think. Most days there are motions on the Order Paper that are in my name and that are technical: setting up the Liaison Committee is today’s one, which I am just required to do. On the bigger…”

“Hopefully we will proceed on consensus with some of these things; that is the idea. Hopefully we will not divide too often, but there may be people who do not agree with some of these things. Some things that a lot of colleagues have raised with me, and I am sure with all of you as members of this Committee, are actual…”

“Hopefully, that is something you can look at as well. We currently have quite a bit of Chamber time allocated to the Backbench Business Committee. I am a supporter of that Committee as a vehicle for Back Benchers to initiate and bring forward debates, but that pattern is sort of continuing—they are not very well-attend…”

“We still have that, actually, and it is still used. It might just be about how someone is on that particular day. It is for you to consider, but the proxy vote system is perhaps more long-term—when you are not going to be around for a period of time and you want a proxy. We do have nodding through, which might be used …”