Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)
My Lords, before we move on to the next business, I will make a brief statement about how we will handle the Committee stage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill tomorrow. I will send this statement, by email, to all Members shortly. I understand that colleagues are keen to prepare and hope that this will help in planning, in line with how business usually moves forward.
First, I thank the staff of the Public Bill Office, who have worked tirelessly to produce the Marshalled List for the first day in Committee. The list, which contains more than 900 amendments, was produced at 1.16 am today. I am sure that the whole House appreciates the hard work that staff have gone through on our behalf.
Noble Lords
Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)
The Whips’ Office will shortly distribute draft groupings of amendments to noble Lords in the usual manner. As the Government are neutral, any changes requested will simply be actioned. The sponsor, my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton, will lead on negotiating any changes, should he wish to do so. The Government will then communicate the final groupings in the usual manner to aid the Committee in having an orderly debate. This is the normal practice, including for PMBs that the Government do not support that have Committee stages.
My noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton will set a target at the end of today to aid colleagues in knowing when they might need to prepare speeches for or whether topics they know about or are interested in may be debated tomorrow. We expect the House to rise at a convenient point around 3 pm as per the usual conventions of the House. We will maintain the typical flexibility of the House and might need to rise slightly beyond or before this point to conclude groups being debated. This ensures orderly debate, and the spirit of good business management means that we do not have to undertake the complex exercise of noting down everyone in attendance to ensure that they are there when the group resumes on a subsequent day. It also aids the overall flow of debate on such an important topic. At the conclusion of the final group, at a convenient point, I will move to adjourn the House.
I ask all noble Lords to respect the usual conventions regarding speaking times in Committee and to respect all noble Lords who are speaking in the debate. The Whips, of course, will continue to monitor the debate in the usual manner. Finally, this is most important: sincere views are held on all sides regarding this Bill. Please respect that and, tomorrow and in the upcoming debates, remember courtesy and respect, and show those watching the House of Lords at its best. I trust that if we continue to respect each other, we will have a thought-provoking debate tomorrow.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)
My Lords, I echo what the Chief Whip has said in relation to the enormous amount of work that has gone into producing the Marshalled List. I also strongly echo what he has said about the temper of the debate, which must do credit to the House. Thirdly, I invite any Member of the House who wishes to degroup pursuant to the suggested groupings from the Whips’ Office today to approach me so that we can discuss an orderly way of dealing with these amendments. Finally, I have been told this morning that 900-plus amendments is the highest-ever number of amendments to a Bill, and I am wondering what conclusion I should draw from that.
Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)
My Lords, I thank the Government Chief Whip for outlining the process for tomorrow, which is entirely within the normal run of things. I also join him in thanking everyone who has worked so hard to draw up the amendments and the groupings.