Natascha Engel
Main Page: Natascha Engel (Labour - North East Derbyshire)Department Debates - View all Natascha Engel's debates with the Leader of the House
(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Sir George Young
We have not dragged our feet. As my ministerial colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr Heath), has just explained, at the first possible opportunity in this Parliament we introduced a Backbench Business Committee, which had been obstructed by the previous Administration, and we also made a commitment, which Labour never made, to introduce a House business committee by the third year. As I said in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) in April, we propose to honour that commitment, and I reject his suggestion that we have dragged our feet.
Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire) (Lab)
Will the Leader of the House guarantee that any House business committee will be entirely separate from the Backbench Business Committee?
Sir George Young
I am very happy to give the hon. Lady the assurance she seeks. We plan to keep the Backbench Business Committee in its current form. The committee to which my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough referred would look at Government business, and the two would work in parallel; the second would not displace the first.