Oral Answers to Questions

Thérèse Coffey Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con)]

3. What his policy is on the House sitting later into the evenings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

[The Deputy Leader of the House of Commons (Dr Thérèse Coffey)]

The Government currently have no plans to bring forward changes to the sitting hours of the House.

[Mr Turner]

A large majority of Members are simply unable to get home in the evenings, and we did not come to London to be given lots of free time. As we have so many new Members, may we ask again whether it is the will of the House that we sit later on Tuesdays and Wednesdays? I would certainly vote in favour of such a proposal, and I know that many other right hon. and hon. Members would agree with me.

[Dr Coffey]

Hon. Members had the opportunity to vote in the previous Parliament, and I suspect that my hon. Friend and I were in the same Lobby at the time. The Procedure Committee revisited the situation, and could do so again if Members made representations to it, but I repeat that the Government have no plans to change the sitting hours of the House.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her post; I am sure she will perform extremely well, as she has in other posts. The Procedure Committee considered this matter in the previous Parliament, but does she agree that it would be opportune for the Committee to pick it up again when it is reconstituted, so that current Members can comment on the sitting hours of the House?

[Dr Coffey]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his welcome, and I congratulate him on, and welcome him to, his new position too. It is not for the Government to determine the business of the Procedure Committee; it is up to the Members selected to serve on the Committee to do that.

The hon. Member for Mole Valley, representing the House of Commons Commission, was asked—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

8. If he will bring forward proposals to establish a business of the House Committee.

[The Deputy Leader of the House of Commons (Dr Thérèse Coffey)]

There was an absence of consensus on this issue at the end of the previous Parliament, and there is still no consensus at the beginning of this Parliament. The Government therefore have no intention to bring forward proposals.

[Mr Bone]

I did not follow that, because there is now a Conservative majority in this House and it has always been Conservative policy to have a business of the House Committee. In welcoming the Deputy Leader of the House to her new position, I note that she is an ex-Whip, and she knows that such a committee would remove a lot of work from the Whips Office as well as being beneficial to the House. Will the Government reconsider their position?

[Dr Coffey]

My hon. Friend knows that the proposal was in the coalition agreement, and that after our great victory there is no longer a coalition. That said, there is still an absence of consensus on how a House business Committee would really work. I hope my hon. Friend welcomes the extra hour for Westminster Hall debates, so that there are plenty of opportunities for Members of all parties to continue to hold the Government to account.

The hon. Member for Mole Valley, representing the House of Commons Commission, was asked—