THIRD REPORT
The Select Committee on Modernisation of the House
of Commons has agreed to the following Report:—
THURSDAY SITTINGS
1. In our First Report of last Session,[12]
which was published in December 1998, we recommended that for
the period between the end of the Christmas adjournment and the
end of the Session the House should meet at 11.30 am on Thursdays
with the moment of interruption at 7 pm. The House agreed to the
Report and the experiment began when the House returned in January
1999.
2. We reviewed the experiment in July 1999 and recommended
that it be continued for a further session.[13]
We did so for two reasons. The first was that the experiment had
been introduced at short notice some weeks into the Session. The
second was that the House was then about to begin the experiment
with parallel sittings in Westminister Hall, on which we are reporting
separately.
3. The Annex to this Report shows the business taken
each Thursday in the period January to May in the last three years—one
year with the old sitting hours and two years under the experimental
régime. It gives the number of days spent on various
types of business, the details of the business, the numbers of
Members voting in divisions and the length of each sitting. We
said last year that "the topics debated under the new hours
this Session were certainly no less important than those debated
last Session under the traditional hours."[14]
That remains our view. Compared with the last year under the traditional
hours, the House sat for almost an hour longer on Thursdays in
the first year of the experiment, and for 40 minutes longer in
the second year.
4. Our provisional conclusion a year ago was that
"by and large, the balance between the duty
of Members to the House and its Committees and to their constituencies
has been preserved by the change of hours on Thursdays. There
have been greater opportunities to carry out constituency duties
effectively without any diminution in the overriding duty of Members
to legislate effectively and to hold the Executive to account."[15]
A further year's experience has confirmed that impression.
5. Nonetheless there are some Members who for years
have been used to a full traditional Parliamentary day until 10.00
pm on a Thursday and who find the experiment not to their liking.
The House is often partially empty on a Thursday after Questions
and the Palace of Westminster is all but empty and like a morgue
after 7.00 pm. This can also be the case when there is no controversial
business from after the conclusion of Questions. Members who hold
this view question whether the experiment of early rising on a
Thursday is really a benefit to Parliament, even if it is a help
either to family life or for greater ease in carrying out work
in the constituency.
6. We recognise that some Members of the House are
not reconciled to the earlier sitting hours on Thursdays and would
prefer to revert to taking main business until 10 pm. Others believe
that the success of the experiment argues for the new sitting
hours to be made permanent in Standing Orders. On balance, we
believe that the next Parliament should be given the opportunity
to take a final decision on this. We therefore recommend that
the current hours of sitting on Thursdays should be continued
until the end of the first Session of the next Parliament.
12 The Parliamentary Calendar: Initial Proposals,
HC 60 (1998-99). Back
13 Third
Report, Session 1998-99, Thursday Sittings, HC 719 (1998-99). Back
14 Ibid,
para 12. Back
15 Ibid,
para 14. Back
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