Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Young of Cookham Excerpts

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

1. If he will assess the effectiveness of (a) oral questions to the Leader of the House and (b) the weekly Business Question as an opportunity for scrutiny.

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Sir George Young)]

I believe that both procedures provide an effective opportunity for hon. Members to hold the Government to account for their management of the business of the House.

[Mr Hollobone]

My right hon. Friend is open to more parliamentary scrutiny on the Floor of the House than any other Minister of the Crown. Will he support my proposals for this present Question Time slot to be merged with his business questions? Together with other consequential changes in the oral questions timetable, that would lead to more time being available for questions to the Department for Transport.

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that suggestion. If this slot was moved from where it is at the moment, it would not advantage the Department for Transport but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, from which we have just heard. The answer to my hon. Friend is this. Within three years, we will be moving towards a House business Committee. At that point, it will make sense to look at how we deal with the whole issue of business questions in the light of new arrangements for that responsibility.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

3. What assessment he has made of proposals for proceedings on private Members’ Bills to take place on days other than Fridays.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alun Michael (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

7. What recent representations he has received on the Welsh Grand Committee’s effectiveness as a forum for discussing Government policy as it relates to Wales.

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Sir George Young)]

Hon. and right hon. Members, including the right hon. Gentleman, have made recent representations to me on this issue. I believe that the Welsh Grand Committee provides an effective forum for Members representing constituencies in Wales to debate matters that relate exclusively to Wales.

[Alun Michael]

I agree with the Leader of the House, but the Committee cannot be effective if it does not meet. He has always shown enormous respect for the conventions of the House. As a former Secretary of State for Wales, I think that previous Conservative and Labour Secretaries of State for Wales have shown respect to the convention of working consensually with all parties to arrange meetings and topics for debate. Will the Leader of the House have a gentle word with the current Secretary of State for Wales to persuade her of the benefits of such a consensual approach?

[Sir George Young]

No one is more in favour of consensus than myself. The Welsh Grand Committee will have its second meeting of the Session this week. That makes two meetings in six months. In 2005, it met once in the Session, in 2006, it met twice and in 2007, it met once. Our record is better than that of our predecessors.

The hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission, was asked—