Bishop’s Stortford Cemetery Bill [HL]
Debate between Viscount Stansgate and Lord Gardiner of Kimble(1 year, 3 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Viscount Stansgate (Lab)
My Lords, I will make three points. The first is to thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Etherton, for chairing the committee. I had never sat on an Opposed Private Bill Committee before and there is a sort of judicial element to the proceedings; we benefited from his experience and wise counsel.
Secondly, I bring to the House’s attention that this is a Bill about cemeteries and running out of space. In years to come, we will find more cemeteries in this position, so we may have further Bills of this kind.
Thirdly, the Bill involved something called the 75-year rule. I will not talk about it now, but this is something that the Law Commission may be considering and, in the fullness of time, this House may return to the subject.
The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord Gardiner of Kimble)
My Lords, I intervene very briefly to thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Etherton, the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, and the other members of the committee for their hard work and scrutiny of this Bill. I beg to move.
Procedure and Privileges Committee
Debate between Viscount Stansgate and Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Viscount Stansgate (Lab)
My Lords, I was not intending to speak so I shall be brief. I endorse many of the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Cormack.
As the House knows well, we are entering a period when there is going to be a great deal more debate about the future and the nature of the composition of the membership of this House, and that will extend beyond the next general election. When I read, as all Members have done, in the recent report by the Speaker’s committee on the composition of the House that the House of Commons Select Committee is currently investigating this House then I think there is all the more reason why we ourselves should have a full and proper discussion and not wait until the next election, so I fully endorse the Senior Deputy Speaker’s suggestion that we return to this in the autumn.
The Senior Deputy Speaker
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral. On what he said about “uncharted territory”, my view is that the noble Lord’s committee has acquired expertise on these matters of sifting extremely quickly, and I place on record my gratitude to previous members and current members and staff for their considerable work in this regard.
On the question of leave of absence, we have had three very helpful contributions. The work that will be getting under way, which I mentioned in prefacing this debate, is precisely for the reasons that have been articulated. We need to get this right and it needs to be appropriate. The reference regarding leave of absence is to “temporary circumstances”. One can interpret “temporary” in different ways, and we have heard various examples of rather longer periods of temporary circumstance when a Member takes leave of absence.
To answer some questions, I knew the answer to the first one, which is that 38 Members are currently on leave of absence, but then a helpful note was passed to me with a figure that I did not know, which is that 18 Members are on leave of absence for more than two years. So those are the two figures.
On future dialogue, as I have said, I very much welcome contributions, submissions or one-to-one meetings with any Members who have particular thoughts on this matter. There is an opportunity for your Lordships’ Select Committee to look at this in the autumn, because we want to make sure that it is contemporary and correct. We are of course mindful that there is the ability for some of our Members to be away for the reasons that we all know and, I hope, to come back and make a strong contribution—sometimes because of the experience they have had in other disciplines and tasks.
We have heard very helpful comments from Members of the House today. In the meantime, I commend the report to the House.
Procedure and Privileges Committee
Debate between Viscount Stansgate and Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Viscount Stansgate (Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the Senior Deputy Speaker’s Motion to approve the report and the idea that the online version should, at any moment, be the most up-to-date version. Can I ask one quick question about paragraph 8? If a Member withdraws her or his Question before the day it is due to be asked, does that Member lose their right to ask the set number of Questions in each year? Is that withdrawn Question counted as one of the number you are allowed to ask in any given year?
The Senior Deputy Speaker
My Lords, I am looking to my right, as they say. It is helpful that we have it on the record: providing they give 24-hours’ notice, a noble Lord would not lose their opportunity. I hope that is helpful.
I take the point made by my noble friend Lord Forsyth that in one reference I have “he or she” and in another there is a “they”, but what I really desperately want is for the House to agree that we have a new, up-to-date Companion.
Procedure and Privileges
Debate between Viscount Stansgate and Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord Gardiner of Kimble)
I must reply by making it very clear that this procedure is for less complex and non-controversial pieces of legislation. That is why there is this safety valve for all of that.
Viscount Stansgate (Lab)
My Lords, forgive me. The point I was raising was whether a Member can speak at Second Reading in the Chamber and in the Moses Room subsequently, even though it would be counted as one general debate.