Oral Answers to Questions

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Monday 25th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)]

3. What proposals he plans to put to the House in respect of the structure of the parliamentary calendar for the remainder of the current Session.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

5. What proposals he plans to put to the House in respect of the structure of the parliamentary calendar for the remainder of the current Session.

[Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

7. What proposals he plans to put to the House in respect of the structure of the parliamentary calendar for the remainder of the current Session.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rehman Chishti]

Does my hon. Friend agree that plans to reform the parliamentary calendar will enhance the ability of the House to scrutinise and debate effectively the Government’s proposed legislation for this Session?

[Mr Heath]

It is important that the House has the fullest possible opportunity to hold the Government to account. One of the difficulties that we had previously when the House did not sit in September was that there was a large part of the year when the actions of Ministers could not be scrutinised by the House. My answer to the hon. Gentleman is yes, I do think that is the case, but we can still do better. That is why I am convinced that we should continue the discussion about how we can best organise the parliamentary calendar to enable the House to do its job as effectively as possible.