Business of the House

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

Come and join this side, then.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. Mr Bryant, please, can we just calm down a little? Both sides get irritated and no one wants to see anyone irritated. Can we offer the hon. Lady our congratulations as well?

[Natascha Engel]

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker.

I thank the Leader of the House for the announcement of the pre-recess Adjournment debate next Thursday. Had the Backbench Business Committee been in existence at that point, I am sure we would have looked at scheduling a pre-recess Adjournment debate on that day, given that the previous pre-recess Adjournment debate was on assisted suicide. I am therefore grateful to the Leader of the House for doing that.

I pay tribute to the outgoing members of the Backbench Business Committee: the hon. Members for Kettering (Mr Hollobone), for Shipley (Philip Davies) and, especially, for Wellingborough (Mr Bone). Without them, the Committee would not be what it is today, and I am sad to see them leave, but I welcome the hon. Members for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) and for Harrow East (Bob Blackman)—and indeed the hon. Member for Southend West (Mr Amess), who is the greatest champion in the House of the pre-recess Adjournment debate, so next week’s will be a fitting start for him. Given that the Committee is still entirely English in composition, I hope that by the end of the Session we can look at having membership from the minority parties in order that we can become a UK Backbench Business Committee instead of being solely English.

--- Later in debate ---

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

A lot of Members want to catch my eye and I want to call them all, so speedy questions and shorter answers are required.

[Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

I am sure that I am not alone in having a significant amount of constituency casework concerning the family courts system and the failings that my constituents find in dealing with that service. Will the Leader of the House find time for an urgent debate to reassure my constituents that all that can be done is being done to reform that system?