Business of the House

Natascha Engel Excerpts

Thursday 17th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I commend my hon. Friend’s work as chair of the all-party group on smoking and health—a group of which I used to be an active member. He is right to draw attention to the importance of making further progress on smoking, which causes some 100,000 premature deaths each year. It is right at the heart of our public health strategy. I cannot promise a debate in Government time, but there may be an opportunity at some point in the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill to debate that important aspect of public health.

[Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire) (Lab)]

This week, the Deputy Prime Minister published a written ministerial statement on public reading stages during Bill Committees. As the Leader of the House knows, my commitment to public engagement in the legislative process is absolute, but not at the expense of a Back Bencher’s ability to scrutinise legislation and hold the Government to account. What is the evidence base for this policy? What assessment has been made of its impact on a Back Bencher’s ability to scrutinise legislation? Just between these four walls, can he say what consultation the Government had with him? They certainly had no consultation with Back Benchers.

[Sir George Young]

I welcome the hon. Lady’s commitment to the House getting more engaged in the legislative programme. It is our intention to publish more Bills in draft. We will publish more in this Session and even more in the Session that follows. The hon. Lady was a member of the Wright Committee, one of whose recommendations was that there should be more engagement between the public and the House on the legislative programme. The Deputy Prime Minister’s written ministerial statement was a further step down that road towards a public reading stage. We have invited their with comments on the Protection of Freedoms Bill to log their comments on the Government website, which will then be moderated and made available to the Public Bill Committee. I hope that that will enrich and inform those who participate in Committee.

I want to engage with the hon. Lady, the Procedure Committee and the Liaison Committee before we move to the fulfilment of what is in the coalition agreement—a commitment to a proper public reading stage. I hope that at that stage the House will take ownership of the process, rather than its being led exclusively by the Government.