Arrangement of Business

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Judge (CB)]

My Lords, on behalf of these Benches, I add my support. I hope that I am not the only person in the Chamber who wonders whether we are all abiding by the 30-second rule for questions and answers at Question Time.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

I completely agree that long speeches are boring; I do not have a problem with that. My contributions this afternoon and this evening will be short. However, I point out that the Government do this House a disservice when they bring to us huge Bills that really ought to be four different Bills—the police Bill, for example. If they do that, we have to table a lot of amendments, which means a lot of debate. Perhaps the Government should extend the Committee and Report stages so that we can discuss these really important issues with enough time.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

My Lords, I do not want to have a long debate; it rather defeats the object of my original remarks. I just point out to noble Lords and the noble Baroness that it is not simply a question of extending our Committee time. The only time left before Easter, if we are to complete the Bills that are already in progress, would mean going into the second half of the Easter Recess. We do not want to do that.