My Lords, I should like to notify the House of the retirement, with effect from today, of another good friend, the noble Lord, Lord Denham, pursuant to Section 1 of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014. On behalf of the House, I thank the noble Lord for his long and much-valued service to the House.
My Lords, with the leave of the House, I want briefly to acknowledge what the Lord Speaker has just announced and pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Denham on the notification of his retirement from this House.
Lord Denham became a Member of this House in 1949 and has served with us for over 71 years. On his retirement, he was the longest-serving Member of the House. My noble friend had an admirable career, serving in the Governments of Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Ted Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and culminating in an impressive 12-year term as Government Chief Whip. He was devoted to this House, knew it backwards and served it well. I know your Lordships will join me in thanking him again for his long and distinguished service to the House and to the country.
(3 years, 9 months ago)
Lords ChamberI will call the noble Lord, Lord Randall, one more time. He is not there, so I call the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, to ask her question.
(3 years, 11 months ago)
Lords ChamberWe shall go on because we cannot hear the noble Baroness.
(4 years ago)
Lords ChamberWith apologies, I think I will move on. I call the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza.
(4 years, 1 month ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, the time allowed for this Question has elapsed.
My Lords, I remind the House that the Procedure Committee has recommended that supplementaries should not last longer than 30 seconds. During the last Question there were examples of questions by Members from nearly all parties and groups that went on for longer than that. It would be of benefit to all noble Lords if Members restricted their supplementaries to 30 seconds.
(4 years, 2 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, all supplementary questions have been asked, and that brings this part of Question Time to an end.
My Lords, unusually, today, we have to have a 10-minute break.
(4 years, 2 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, the Hybrid Sitting of the House will now resume. Some Members are here in the Chamber, respecting social distancing, others are participating virtually, but all Members are treated equally. If the capacity of the Chamber is exceeded, I am afraid that I will immediately have to adjourn the House.
My Lords, before we start, I remind noble Lords that this is a Private Notice Question. I urge noble Lords to keep their questions short in order to allow everyone to get in; they should not make speeches.
(4 years, 7 months ago)
Lords ChamberI will come in, as the Chief Whip. I am very sorry, but the answer is that I have no idea why my noble friend Lord Gardiner is unavailable. I apologise to the House. Something technical has obviously gone wrong, and I can only ask your Lordships’ forgiveness on this occasion. There will be a thorough inquiry into this, and I apologise to the House.
Thank you, Chief Whip. Can you stay on the line and at least field the questions that will come? The right reverend Prelate needs to ask his supplementary.