Early-day Motions

Bob Russell Excerpts

Monday 6th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Graham Evans]

I am most grateful for that intervention.

There is considerable and growing support from colleagues from both sides of this House for this issue to be looked at. Personally, I am very much open to debate on whether we simply abolish or dramatically reform early-day motions. I have had a number of conversations with colleagues and the staff of the Table Office and there are plenty of ideas floating around about how early-day motions can be improved. They must be made more cost-effective, but we could also look at limiting the number that an individual Member can table and sign in a single Parliament and perhaps guarantee that the few early-day motions with the most support are guaranteed to be debated.

[Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

Following the hon. Gentleman’s theme, would he also put a limit on the number of parliamentary questions an MP could table?

[Graham Evans]

I am not sure what the answer is to that question. Perhaps we could discuss it over a cup of tea in the Tea Room later.

It might be possible to formalise the mechanism of early-day motions within the framework of the Backbench Business Committee. The hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen) has suggested that Members should be able to add their name to only one early-day motion each week, with the most popular one being debated the following week. The remaining early-day motions would then fall off the agenda. That way, Members would be forced to think very carefully about which early-day motion to back, rather than mindlessly tabling and signing dozens at a time. Members would be most unlikely to want to waste their single early-day motion on something daft or a pro forma drafted by lobbyists.

As I mentioned, the current cost of EDMs could also be slashed dramatically. Last year, printing costs alone accounted for £776,000. On top of that, substantial staffing costs add up to more than £1 million a year. There is no need to print multiple copies of every EDM each sitting day. EDMs could be kept largely electronic, with paper lists printed only on request. That is nothing complicated, only common sense to help save the taxpayer substantial sums over the course of a Parliament.

I hope that I have set out a clear case why EDMs are unsustainable in their current form and how we might go about reforming them. I also hope that this debate will help inform constituents about the reality of EDMs. Perhaps many charities and businesses that spend millions hiring lobbyists will listen to tonight’s debate and be more sceptical when public affairs consultants try to convince them of their effectiveness by getting an EDM tabled. Most of all, I hope that members of the Procedure Committee are listening carefully and realise how much support there is for change. I urge them to consider EDMs carefully and begin the process of reform as soon as possible. If we get it right, we can improve Back-Bench Members’ ability to raise topical issues, get better value for taxpayers’ money and restore faith in the House. There is no better time than the present.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Heath]

If I may gently say so, I think there is a difference of kind between those causes, which I think most people would consider to be serious causes, and the fortunes of the local football club on a Saturday afternoon. I think there is a difference, perhaps, in scale of import between those topics.

[Sir Bob Russell]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Heath]

I will, but I will have to make progress soon.

[Sir Bob Russell]

Perhaps I can ask the Deputy Leader of the House to consider these examples: the Gurkha rights campaign and the Royal British Legion’s military covenant campaign, on which I tabled early-day motions, or indeed early-day motion 1—I think—in 2009, which I also tabled and which the then Conservative Opposition thought was so brilliant that they brought it to the House and we had a vote on it.

[Mr Heath]

There is no doubt that some early-day motions are of considerable importance in the topics they raise. What I think the hon. Member for Weaver Vale was saying is that there may be better ways of bringing those matters to the House than the current system. There are also things that, frankly, I would be amazed if the House spent its time debating in real life, as opposed to the application that an early-day motion purports to be.

There are ways in which the issue could be dealt with. The hon. Gentleman suggested that limits might be imposed on the number of early-day motions that an individual Member could table or sign. Those are matters for the Procedure Committee to consider, should it decide to do so, but numerical limits, which were also suggested in an intervention, might be seen as an unexceptional constraint on hon. Members’ freedom of action. The implementation of a limit might encourage the syndication of motions. Limits would certainly provide an incentive for hon. Members to ensure that they used their right to table or support motions wisely, but at a cost, in terms of the limitation of their action.