Business of the House

Ian Mearns Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

My right hon. Friend is not only right but he reads my mind. There are great opportunities: the new financial services regulation, which will encourage innovation and competition; the faster and more agile clinical and regulatory regime that is going through with the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill; a revolutionary approach to gene editing, on which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is consulting; freeports, on which the Treasury is consulting; and looking at public procurement differently. We are really taking back control and seeking the advantages, but I hope that my right hon. Friend will join in this enterprise and send a list of all his good ideas to every Minister so that we know there are more ideas bubbling away.

[Ian Mearns (Gateshead) (Lab) [V]]

I thank the Leader of the House for the business statement and for announcing the Backbench Business debates next week and the week after. May I ask him again, though, whether on Thursday 28 January, when we have an important debate recognising Holocaust Memorial Day, which is the previous day, we could get some measure of protected time so that that debate can be heard in full? It will be very heavily subscribed and, as we know, urgent questions and statements eat into the time available for Backbench Business debates.

On 4 February, the two debates are a debate on the future of the UK space industry and a general debate on the towns fund. Those debates were previously scheduled for Westminster Hall but had to be rescheduled into the Chamber because of the closure of Westminster Hall.

I did not get in during the previous business—the urgent question on vaccination—to congratulate the directors of public health and all staff involved in the roll-out of vaccines here in Gateshead and across the north-east of England, but I hope that the Leader of the House will use his good offices to ensure that the region is not punished for the success of the roll-out here by having vaccines diverted to other parts of the country so that they can catch up.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I do not think the hon. Gentleman should use the second session of business to place the question he wishes he had asked in the first session of business, so I will come to the Backbench Business issues. There is always pressure on time, and it is a difficult balance. The debate on Holocaust Memorial Day is of fundamental importance. The Backbench Business Committee has of course decided to have two debates on that day, and that was a matter for it.

There are complications. I did my best today to protect time for Back-Bench business by discouraging my ministerial colleagues from making extra statements, including one from the Department of Health and Social Care, which then got an urgent question. It is not entirely under my control; it is between Mr Speaker, the Leader of the House’s office and what Back Benchers ask for as to how time will be divided up, so I encourage the hon. Gentleman to lobby not just me but others who have influence in this area.