Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)
My Lords, before we start Oral Questions today, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to remind Members that the House wishes questions asked to be short, sharp, succinct and to the point. As I have said many times before, it is called Question Time for a reason. There is no greater favour that a noble Lord can do for a Minister than to make a speech before asking their question. Equally, the House expects Ministers when replying to questions to be short, sharp, succinct and to the point. If we do this, we will have greater scrutiny at Question Time of Ministers and the Government, and more Members will get the opportunity to ask a question.
When questions are asked, we move around the House, enabling Members from different Benches to get in, but it is unlikely that we will get back to the Bench of the Member asking the first Question before other supplementaries from other Benches have been asked. For example, the first Question today is from the noble Baroness, Lady Elliott of Whitburn Bay. After the noble Baroness has asked her supplementary question and it has been answered, we will move to other Benches. I would not normally expect another Labour Member to get in until we have heard from the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Cross Benches and maybe even the Bishops’ Benches.
I would also ask all Members not to have conversations in the House, as this disrupts other Members in listening to contributions to the business. I hope this is of assistance and clear for all Members.