House of Commons Business

Baroness Primarolo Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Tom Brake]

The difficulty with that is that it would effectively create two classes of Members—one required to provide more and another required to provide less notice. That presents problems.

I thought that the hon. Gentleman was going to intervene about the couple of other points that were raised while I was temporarily out of the Chamber. He will be pleased to know that I got inspiration even while not within these Chamber walls. On defamation, the shadow Leader of the House called on the Government to support an amendment to the Deregulation Bill to repeal section 13 of the Defamation Act 1996. The Government have previously made it clear that they support the repeal and will act when a legislative opportunity arises. I am pleased to say that one such opportunity will arise next week.

The shadow Deputy Leader of the House made a point about e-petitions and privilege. That is a matter that the Procedure Committee could consider. There may be implications depending on the decisions reached—for example, on whether a petitions Committee considers all petitions, potentially accepting them as evidence. Once the system is designed, clarity on that will be important.

We have had a focused and concise debate on these House issues, and I hope that we are now in a position to move forward.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

Mr Allen, do you want to move your motion formally?