Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)
My Lords, before the debate is resumed, I want to remind the House of a few important points. First, I think the whole House will join me in recognising, as the Senior Deputy Speaker did yesterday, that the first day of the Second Reading last week was the House of Lords at its best. Noble Lords observed the advisory time limit and were courteous and respectful of every contribution, regardless of the wide range of views on the topic.
The advisory time limit for Back-Bench contributions remains at four minutes as it was last week. I ask all noble Lords to respect that and each other by sticking to it closely. That means that, when a speaker gets to three minutes, they should start making their concluding remarks and, at four minutes, their time is up. Of course, as with the openers, the winders, including my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton, will have longer, per the usual conventions. I am sure, though, that those colleagues will also make sure that their remarks are considerate of the overall debate. I estimate that, if noble Lords follow this guidance, after all Motions are decided on, we should be able to rise at around 4 pm today.
I should like to highlight the letter to the whole House from my noble friend Lady Berger and my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton, which sets out their agreement on my noble friend Lady Berger’s revised Motion to set up a time-limited Select Committee. If that Motion is indeed carried today, I shall arrange for a revised Forthcoming Business to be issued at the end of next week, advertising updated Committee stage dates for the Bill. The Senior Deputy Speaker will also be able to make provision for the resulting Committee to be set up as soon as possible, to commence its important work urgently.