Business of the House

Lord Higgins Excerpts

Thursday 3rd July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I am delighted to hear the affirmation from the noble Lord that this is not just an echo of another place. Here every Peer can have a voice. When we have time-limited debates, every Peer is allowed to sign up. The other side of that is that in a time-limited debate every Peer should be allowed their voice, and if there are lengthy interventions at the beginning of a debate, it will mean simply that those who are to speak later are denied their voice. This is a House that respects the conventions of the way in which we work, and I know that we will have two very effective debates today.

[Lord Higgins (Con)]

My Lords, is it not the case that the time limits are now becoming so short that it is not only virtually impossible to take an intervention but very difficult to make a speech that covers the subject adequately? Should we not consider carefully whether we should have a minimum time limit—if necessary regulated by a ballot or some other means? We ought not to go on having limits as short as some that there have been recently.

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I know that these matters have been considered on previous occasions in the Procedure Committee and there are valid arguments on both sides regarding the proposal made by my noble friend. All I can say is that today the time limit is seven minutes, which is considered to be ample time to set out one’s arguments. Perhaps I may quote my noble friend Lord Patten who remarked on one occasion, in a Question for Short Debate, that after speaking for five minutes in another place he had barely cleared his throat. Here we are perhaps capable of putting our arguments succinctly and forcefully in a remarkably compact amount of time.