Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Debate between Lord True and Lord Kennedy of Southwark

Report stage
Wednesday 22nd October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, I will speak as Leader of the Opposition; I do not wish to interfere with this debate. I have no intention of moving the adjournment of the House, which has been suggested might happen. We will proceed to the end of the debate and my noble friend Lady Scott will respond to the Minister.

I draw the House’s attention to the fact that it is now past 10 pm, the normal hour when the House rises according to the Companion. We had a discussion last Tuesday, on my initiative, about the sitting times of the House. We were told that it would be to the advantage of the House to meet at 11 am. That was not agreed by the opposition parties or the Convenor of the Cross-Bench Peers. We find ourselves here at 10 pm, having sat in the morning for three hours, still with many groups to consider.

With all due respect to the Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, this is not the proper way to conduct the business of this House. We have had Ministers here on duty since 11 am and we have had members of the staff here on duty for 11 hours. If the House chooses, as it chose last Tuesday, to meet at 11 am, we must end at the time when the Companion says that we should end. There is a better way of proceeding, which has to be done by agreement in the usual channels.

I have no doubt that, after my noble friend Lady Scott responds, we will move to a Division in the proper way of your Lordships’ House. However, I expect—and I think many other Members of your Lordships’ House would expect—the Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms to come to the Dispatch Box after the Division to explain quite how long he expects the House to continue this evening. It would be to the improvement of us all if we could return to our normal ways of doing things. I therefore give him notice of that.

Let us proceed with and conclude the debate, and let us have our Division. Please let us then, outside this Chamber if need be, reach an agreement on drawing stumps at an appropriate time. Ministers have done enough; my colleagues have done enough; the House has done enough; and the staff have done enough.

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

I can very briefly come to the Dispatch Box now. Can I first say how much I respect the noble Lord? We are very clear: I know that the noble Lord and his party did not support the suggestion of starting at 11 am, but that was a decision of the House. My intention is that, when these votes are finished, we will rise. We have three votes, so after about 30 minutes we will be rising; I have no intention of going beyond that. We will have the votes and then go home.

I am also always very happy to discuss things in the usual channels, and obviously we will discuss things in the coming days and weeks. But we will have our votes and then we will adjourn the House.

Arrangement of Business

Debate between Lord True and Lord Kennedy of Southwark

Thursday 5th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, when I became Government Chief Whip eight weeks ago, I was pleased to be able to announce so soon after my appointment the recess dates up until we return after the Christmas Recess in January 2025. I am now going to announce the remaining recess dates up until we return after the Summer Recess next year. This, I believe, will be helpful to Members of the House and the staff who work here. As ever, they are subject to the progress of business. There is no need to write them down; my office has made the usual notice available in the Royal Gallery, and I will shortly email a note to all noble Lords in their parliamentary inboxes.

As I have said, I have already announced the recess dates up until the end of the Christmas Recess. If business runs as expected, the rest of the planned recess dates will be as follows. We will rise for the February Recess at the end of business on Thursday 13 February and return on Monday 24 February. We will then rise for the Easter Recess at the end of Thursday 3 April and return on Tuesday 22 April. I expect the Whitsun Recess to start at the conclusion of business on Thursday 22 May, with the House returning on Monday 2 June. Finally, I anticipate that the Summer Recess will start at the end of business on Thursday 24 July, and that the House will return on Monday 1 September next year. In future I will of course give noble Lords as much notice as I can of recess dates, but I hope noble Lords will appreciate that I have gone quite far in announcing them a year in advance.

Before I sit down, I also want to highlight the time limits for today’s debates. Given the large number of speakers for both debates, the time limits are tight for individual Back-Bench contributions. The first debate, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, is limited to one and a half hours, and Back-Bench contributions are limited to two minutes. The second debate, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, is limited to three and a half hours, and Back-Bench contributions should be limited to four minutes.

All noble Lords should adhere to these absolute time limits. When the clock shows two minutes and four minutes respectively, their time is up. This will ensure adequate time for Opposition Front-Bench and ministerial responses. I have asked the Whips to intervene if contributions are exceeding these limits to protect the time for the Front-Bench responses. I am sure that noble Lords will be mindful of that in their speeches.

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, we are very grateful to the noble Lord for giving early notice of these matters. I assume that there will be no fixture for Millwall in the first week of September next year.

The noble Lord sent out a recent letter about misinformation. I will not repeat what we have said about lack of information and the lack of a Statement—the Hansard record on that stands—but it would be informative and helpful in terms of building consensus if the noble Lord could consider very positively an early debate on the matter of reform of the House of Lords, which might actually inform discussions in the other place.

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

I thank the noble Lord very much for his comments and for those points. We have just had the PNQ where we discussed reform of the House of Lords. I am sure that the House has heard the Leader; we have heard the requests, and we will obviously consider those and come back to the noble Lord through the usual channels.