Arrangement of Business

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Friday 30th January 2026 Lords Chamber

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

As the noble Baroness knows, this issue has been raised over a number of weeks now, and I have met several noble Lords to discuss it. As I have said before, it is up to any noble Lord to move at any time that the House do now resume if they wish to do so. I said that I would not come back until 6 pm, but the point is that we set a target every day for Members to get to. If we get to the target, we can go home. If we get to it much earlier, we can leave earlier. The 6 pm time is a maximum—we do not have to go until 6 pm. We could get to our target and go home much earlier if we wanted to. In my discussions with colleagues, I have tried to put in place procedures to help people who need to leave for reasons such as disability or religion.

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Chief Whip has rightly pointed to the lack of progress we are making on this Bill. Part of the problem is not how much time we spend on each amendment, but the number of amendments that have been put down, which is unprecedented. I hope that those who are opposed to the Bill will accept that many of us who are in favour of it understand completely the good faith of those who are querying some aspects of it. What we are worried about is that we are not going to be able properly to consider the Bill because of the time being taken on many amendments—quite often rather absurd ones, and some of which completely repeat what has already been brought forward.

Lastly, in defence of my noble and learned friend the Bill’s sponsor, he has responded in these debates with courtesy and consideration and has taken seriously what has been said. It is very unfair to criticise him. He has also responded in a letter, as has already been stated, setting out which amendments he intends to take further and come up with a response to on Report.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, responding directly to that point, it is indeed true that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, wrote to some members yesterday. Sadly, I did not receive his letter directly from him, but it was forwarded to me. Part of the problem here, directly relating to the noble Baroness’s question, is that the Committees of this House reported some months ago—the Delegated Powers Committee, for example, reported in September. If this was a Government Bill, the Minister would have been expected to set out a thorough, detailed response to all these points before we started Committee stage. We received a letter only yesterday from the noble and learned Lord, setting out his points, and in most cases, he said that the amendments would follow later. Had that happened earlier, many amendments would not have needed tabling. If the noble Baroness is looking for the reason for the delay, it is not just on one side of the House.