Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, pursuant to the answer of 7 June 2023 to Question 187539 on Legislation, when the Government plans to bring forward the Transport bill.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The Government has brought forward an ambitious legislative programme, with 24 bills currently before Parliament. Future business will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of Members of Parliament holding second jobs on the service they are able to provide to their constituents.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The Committee on Standards has carefully considered the matter of MPs holding second jobs and conducting outside work and resolved not to recommend limiting this in the absence of a consensus in favour of restrictions on time spent and earnings from outside work.
The Government believes that an MPs’ primary role is and must be to serve their constituents and represent their interests in Parliament. That is why we brought forward a motion implementing proposals recommended in the Committee on Standards’ reports on a revised Code of Conduct and Guide to the Rules for MPs.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, which bills the Government (a) has and (b) has not withdrawn that it will not be proceeding with that were included in the 2022 Queen’s Speech.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The Government has delivered on many of its 2019 manifesto commitments, and will continue to do so. The 2022 Queen's Speech set out an ambitious legislative programme and so far this session 24 Bills have received Royal Assent.
The House has been informed of three Bills that were announced in the Queen's Speech on 10 May 2022 that have been introduced to Parliament and will no longer make progress:
The measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill will now be pursued as single measure Bills. We remain fully committed to delivering our manifesto commitments and this approach is now the surest and the quickest way of doing so.
The Government will inform the House of any further changes in the usual way.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of post-legislative scrutiny of the Nationality and Borders Act.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
As set out in the Guide to Making Legislation (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-making-legislation), any post-legislative scrutiny usually takes place three to five years after Royal Assent. It will be for the Home Office to discuss the publication of any post-legislative scrutiny memorandum with the Home Affairs Select Committee in the coming years.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, if she will take steps to help ensure that impact assessments are published before a Bill is introduced to the House.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The Government response to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report on Losing Impact: why the Government’s impact assessment system is failing Parliament and the public (HL Paper 116), was published on 15 December 2022, and is available on parliament.uk (https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/33276/documents/180120/default/).
The Government has taken a number of steps to ensure that best practice is followed by departments, for example:
Published impact assessments, including their date of publication, are available on the Parliament website (https://bills.parliament.uk/).
The Government is clear that Parliament should have the information it needs and that impact assessments should be published, where possible, when legislation is laid before Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what her timetable is for bringing the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill back to the House for its Report Stage and Third Reading.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
We have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. We continue to strengthen these even further, for example through:
We are fully committed to delivering our manifesto commitments on animal welfare, including ending the export of live animals and clamping down on the keeping of primates as pets. All future business will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, how many impact assessments on legislation the Government has published after a bill has (a) been introduced to the House and (b) passed all its stages in the House in this Parliament as of 6 March 2023.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The Government response to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report on Losing Impact: why the Government’s impact assessment system is failing Parliament and the public (HL Paper 116), was published on 15 December 2022, and is available on parliament.uk (https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/33276/documents/180120/default/).
The Government has taken a number of steps to ensure that best practice is followed by departments, for example:
Published impact assessments, including their date of publication, are available on the Parliament website (https://bills.parliament.uk/).
The Government is clear that Parliament should have the information it needs and that impact assessments should be published, where possible, when legislation is laid before Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what steps she is taking to help ensure Government impact assessments contain sufficient information and analysis for Members to scrutinise and suggest amendments to legislation.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The Government response to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report on Losing Impact: why the Government’s impact assessment system is failing Parliament and the public (HL Paper 116), was published on 15 December 2022, and is available on parliament.uk (https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/33276/documents/180120/default/).
The Government has taken a number of steps to ensure that best practice is followed by departments, for example:
Published impact assessments, including their date of publication, are available on the Parliament website (https://bills.parliament.uk/).
The Government is clear that Parliament should have the information it needs and that impact assessments should be published, where possible, when legislation is laid before Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what steps she is taking to help ensure Ministers are appropriately briefed for Urgent Questions so they are able to answer questions from Members.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The briefing provided to Ministers in response to Urgent Questions is a matter for individual Departments.
The Guide to Parliamentary Work is produced by the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, working closely with colleagues across government, and in the service of the House of Commons and House of Lords. It is designed for civil servants who work closely with Parliament and, in particular, Parliamentary teams across Whitehall. In November 2022 my office published an updated guide which is available on Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work.
The Parliamentary Capability Team in the Cabinet Office also provides training on managing parliamentary work to civil servants of all departments and grades.
Asked by: Baroness Debbonaire (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, when an updated version of the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament and Guide to the Rules will be published.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Following a debate on 12th December 2022, the House approved a revised Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament and Guide to the Rules, with effect from 1st March 2023. The publication of these documents is a matter for the House, rather than the Government.