Arrangement of Business

Debate between Lord Kennedy of Southwark and Baroness O'Loan

Friday 30th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

I cannot do that. What I can say to my noble friend is that, in my 16 years in the House, I have found that some groups take longer than others and some get dealt with very quickly. I think we all need to use our best endeavours to make some more progress. We cannot set minutes per group; it does not work like that. Sometimes, I have sat here, and a group has been dealt with very quickly in two or three minutes; other times, I have sat here for three or four hours. I just think that we should all try to make more progress. If we have sat for four, five, six or seven hours and done only two or three groups, that is, in my opinion, quite slow, and we should look to do more than that. I hope that that helps my noble friend.

[Baroness O’Loan (CB)]

My Lords, first, some of those groups have had nearly 100 amendments in them, which is quite a lot. Secondly, in this week when we remember the Holocaust, your Lordships’ House—which, in making laws for the whole country, is required to respect people’s rights, including their right to freedom of religion—is compelling us to sit until 6 pm.

Our Jewish Members are unable to do so, and I have seen them very quietly leaving Friday after Friday. Members of the Muslim community are also adversely affected by the sitting arrangements, and those who have a disability and who cannot attend because of the current arrangements are also prejudiced against. We do not do ourselves a service when we discriminate on grounds of religion and disability.

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

As the noble Baroness knows, this issue has been raised over a number of weeks now, and I have met several noble Lords to discuss it. As I have said before, it is up to any noble Lord to move at any time that the House do now resume if they wish to do so. I said that I would not come back until 6 pm, but the point is that we set a target every day for Members to get to. If we get to the target, we can go home. If we get to it much earlier, we can leave earlier. The 6 pm time is a maximum—we do not have to go until 6 pm. We could get to our target and go home much earlier if we wanted to. In my discussions with colleagues, I have tried to put in place procedures to help people who need to leave for reasons such as disability or religion.

Arrangement of Business

Debate between Lord Kennedy of Southwark and Baroness O'Loan

Friday 16th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, who is obviously an experienced Member of this House. Ideally, when we are discussing any legislation, it is better to conclude a group of amendments on the day than not doing so—that is just better for the management of the House’s business—but sometimes that is not possible and, when that is the case, I fully accept that we should adjourn mid-group and then come back to it the next day. If that happens today at any point, I will ensure that happens.

[Baroness O'Loan (CB)]

My Lords, I endorse what the noble Lord, Lord Empey, said. I know that many of our Scottish and north of England colleagues are very much affected by this.

I want to draw the Chief Whip’s attention to one thing. The House normally rises around 7 pm on Thursday evenings. That is reflected by the fact that, for example, there is no dinner in the Peers’ Dining Room on Thursday evenings. Would it not be possible for the Lords instead to sit until 10 pm, say, and then release us at 3 pm on Fridays so that we do not incur extra expense, which the House has to pay, because of this change of business?

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

I am very happy to discuss that further with the noble Baroness next week and with the usual channels, but up to now, of course, PMBs have been dealt with on Fridays. I think all my colleagues in the usual channels want to keep to that—I certainly do—but I am very happy to have that discussion next week to find another way forward to do what the House wants, which is to find more time for this Bill. We will see if we can do that, but I am very happy to have that discussion next week.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Kennedy of Southwark and Baroness O'Loan

Committee stage
Friday 14th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

I thank the noble Lord for that point. As I said at the start, the Government remain neutral and will not be providing government time for this Bill. Obviously, we will look at things when we get to the end of our four days in Committee. I will then work with the usual channels to see what other time can be made available from non-government time, but we will have to see whether we will move on over the next few days.

[Baroness O’Loan (CB)]

I say to the Minister that we are talking about four days. The general public know that a sitting Friday lasts from 10 am to 3 pm. People have made arrangements accordingly, and there are reasons of faith and things such as that which require that we respect that ending at 3 pm. On a normal day, the House would sit for up to 10 or 12 hours, so four days is just not enough.