| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst): On a point of order, Madam Speaker. Can you confirm that, at no time today, did you receive any request from the Deputy Prime Minister or the Minister for Transport to make a statement on the matter of air traffic control, and that Ministers were forced to come to the House only as a result of you granting a private notice question to my hon. Friend the Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin)?
I ask that because I thought that I heard on the radio this morning--as no doubt you did, Madam Speaker; I know that you are an assiduous listener to the radio in the morning--the Minister saying that she could not reveal anything to the public until she had revealed it to Parliament. Can you confirm that you received no such request from the Minister, until she was forced to come to the House by you, following a request from my hon. Friend?
Madam Speaker:
I received no request from any Minister to make a statement today. I did receive a request
Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow):
On a point of order, Madam Speaker. In view of your sympathetic reception yesterday to the points of order raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Halifax (Mrs. Mahon) and myself in relation to the possible ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo and the dire pollution at Pancevo and other places in Serbia, and given that we shall not be back before the beginning of the Serbian winter, have you had any request from the Foreign Office to make a statement on that urgent matter?
Madam Speaker:
I have not been informed by the Foreign Office or any other Department of State that it wishes to make a statement on Kosovo.
Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North):
On a point of order, Madam Speaker. You will be aware of the huge public concern about the growing of genetically modified crops, and you may be aware of a statement in one of the newspapers this morning to the effect that the Government may be placing a cloak of secrecy over the location of GM crops being grown throughout Britain. Have you had any requests from a Minister to make such a statement and, in view of the seriousness of the possibility of secrecy surrounding crop trials, which have overwhelming implications for many people, do you not think that there should be such a statement?
Madam Speaker:
I sometimes wish that I could tell the House what I think about it. On a more serious note, no, I have not received any request to make such a statement today.
Mrs. Linda Gilroy, supported by Mr. David Chaytor, Mr. Alan Simpson, Mr. Peter Temple-Morris, Mr. Matthew Taylor, Angela Smith, Maria Eagle and Ms Linda Perham presented a Bill to require the Secretary of State to draw up and facilitate the carrying out, over a period of fifteen years, of a programme of action to provide at least 500,000 households per year with a comprehensive package of home insulation and other energy efficiency improvements; and for connected purposes: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 5 November, and to be printed [Bill 149].
Madam Speaker:
I have to notify the House, in accordance with the Royal Assent Act 1967, that the Queen has signified Her Royal Assent to the following Acts:
Finance Act 1999
Disability Rights Commission Act 1999
Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Act 1999
Company and Business Names (Chamber of Commerce, Etc.) Act 1999
Commonwealth Development Corporation Act 1999
Football (Offences and Disorder) Act 1999
Access to Justice Act 1999
Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999
Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999
Criminal Cases Review (Insanity) Act 1999
Employment Relations Act 1999
Mr. Oliver Letwin (West Dorset):
I beg to move,
The Bill is a modest measure, which arises from the very same perplexity that was mentioned in the House in an Adjournment debate on 11 June 1999 when the hon. Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Pound) said:
The hon. Gentleman also said:
Alas, it so happens that, under the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987, that is not the case. Class A1 of that order allows the transformation of any
item in a long list of kinds of business premises to be achieved without planning permission, as long as that transformation is into another of the classes listed in class A1.
Class A1(f) is entitled:
This modest Bill is entirely intended to bring to the attention of the officials and Ministers responsible the urgent need to remove paragraph (f) from class A1. That would hardly make major legislative history, but it would have the beneficial effect that neither my constituents nor those of the hon. Member for Ealing, North would awake on any day to find that such a horrible event had occurred without the slightest redress being available. If there is a purpose for ten-minute Bills and for private Members coming to the House to try to change legislation or to bring such matters to the attention of officials, this is a classic example of that purpose.
My constituents in Sherborne feel extremely strongly about this matter, which has probably attracted more attention from the local press than most of the great matters of state. I suspect that they and the constituents of many other Members around the House would be profoundly grateful if the Government took the appropriate steps, even though I foster no illusion that the Bill is likely to be passed.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Oliver Letwin, Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Mr. Eric Pickles and Mr. David Lidington.
Mr. Oliver Letwin accordingly presented a Bill to amend the law in connection with the change of use of premises intended to be funeral parlours: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 5 November, and to be printed [Bill 150].
Motion made, and Question put forthwith, pursuant to Standing Order No. 118(6) (Standing Committees on Delegated Legislation) and Order of 15 July,
Queen's recommendation signified.
Motion made, and Question put forthwith, pursuant to Standing Order No. 118(6) (Standing Committees on Delegated Legislation),
5.27 pm
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the law in connection with the change of use of premises intended to be funeral parlours.
I cannot claim that the Bill quite ranks with the awesome list of legislation that has just received Royal Assent, and I do not expect that it will have the same success in passing through the various stages that it would need to in the House. Nor, the House will be relieved to know, do I intend to spend more than a minute or two explaining it.
"I have no objection to funeral parlours and funeral directors operating in the high street."
I utterly share those sentiments. In the long run, as Keynes said, we are all dead and we need such services.
"The vexed issue of planning and funeral parlours is of great concern to my constituents. For many years, one of my constituents lived next to an excellent local newsagent . . . where sustenance for mind and body was available . . . To her horror, one day she found that a funeral parlour had appeared almost overnight in the small parade of shops."--[Official Report, 11 June 1999; Vol. 332, c. 961.]
The strange fact is that, in my constituency of West Dorset in the town of Sherbourne, almost identical events transpired, and one of my constituents woke up one fine morning to discover that an entirely innocuous shop was about to be turned into a funeral parlour. As it happens, my constituent passed her days pleasantly sunning herself in her front garden and did not wish--if I may be forgiven the phrase by the House--to see a procession of stiffs passing her front garden. She thought that she had the usual remedies available to her; that she could go to the district council and ask that her case be put. She expected that the funeral parlour proprietor would then be able to put his case and that the matter would be adjudicated in the ordinary way.
"For the direction of funerals".
I am a profound proponent and supporter of the order in general and there is a desperate need to allow businesses to be flexible and change their premises and for different kinds of businesses to emerge on our high streets, but funeral parlours are not quite like all other forms of shop. They bear rather more resemblance to other things, which are not included in that list and which cause concern to constituents. Hence, they have to go through the planning procedure.
That, in respect of service in the period starting with 1st April 1999 and ending with 31st March 2000, the salary of the Data Protection Registrar shall be £66,290 per annum.--[Mr. Hill.]
Question agreed to.
That the draft Courses for Drink-Drive Offenders (Experimental Period) (Termination of Restrictions) Order 1999, which was laid before this House on 12th July, be approved.--[Mr. Hill.]
Question agreed to.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |