Building Societies (Funding) and Mutual Societies (Transfers) Bill

Exactly, Madam Deputy Speaker. Effectively, what the Minister who wrote that letter said was not very different from the explanatory memorandum. It is not satisfactory that we are being asked to allow the rules on hybridity to be disapplied, without any guaranteed safeguards for members who might otherwise be able to resort to those rules. The provisions in the Standing Orders of the other place have stood the test of time as a necessary safeguard. Those set out in Standing Orders Nos. 216 and 216A are clearly stated and do not involve an enormous amount of time; however, they do ensure that those who feel aggrieved can put forward a petition, which can then be considered. As someone who did once petition this House in respect of a private Bill—a house in London in which I had an interest was over the proposed route of the Jubilee line tunnel—I know exactly how valuable the petitioning procedure can be. I point out to my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West in particular that it normally results not in a full hearing in front of the relevant Committee, but in a compromise between those who feel aggrieved and the promoters of the Bill or instrument in question. It is a safeguard that will probably not normally have to be exercised through time being spent in the other place. However, the knowledge on the part of the mutual society in question that, if the instrument is potentially hybrid, it needs to ensure fairness among all the private interests affected, concentrates minds and ensures that the society is more likely to satisfy an aggrieved party's complaints in advance. This procedure does have a very important role to play, therefore, in our parliamentary democracy and, indeed, in our constitution. In fact, that is exactly what happened in the case that I was referring to. As a result of our expressing concern that our houses would subside because of the tunnelling works, our local residents association was given cast-iron guarantees that, if any subsidence occurred, it would be paid for by those building the new Jubilee line. I am pleased to say that in the end, there was no subsidence. However, there were concerns that there might be, and without the private Bill procedure and the opportunity to petition, those concerns might have affected the value of houses in the area because people would have been worried about what would happen if subsidence did occur in future. So this procedure is not merely theoretical, but of constitutional significance. It is worth telling the House that it is not the case that hybrid orders are never resorted to. First, however, I should point out that I have found three examples since 1 January 2000 of hybrid orders that did complete the hybrid instrument procedure. There were no petitions presented against the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (Area and Constitution) Order 2004, which was subsequently approved by both Houses. I have not gone into the detail, but perhaps that was because the concerns expressed—similar to my experience with the Jubilee line—were addressed before the matter reached Parliament. The second example is the Thurrock Development Corporation (Area and Constitution) Order 2003, which was laid before Parliament on 2 July 2003. No petitions were presented against that order, which was subsequently approved by both Houses. The third example is the draft Policing of Airports (Belfast City) Order 2003. Again, no petitions were presented. In case any of my hon. Friends are now thinking, ““Well, is this procedure ever used?””, I can tell them that it was used in the context of the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation (Area and Constitution) Order 2004, which was petitioned against. The relevant Select Committee considered the matters complained of in the petitions against the order. They were gone into, and eventually the order was approved by both Houses. However, as a result, it was a better order than it would have been, and those who felt that it would particularly disadvantage them were able to have their say. You will know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the right to petition this House goes back to time immemorial—before the time when we began having Government legislation in the way we have it today. I cannot understand the reports in today's papers saying that the Government have not got enough legislation for this House and, that as a result, we will be unable to sit so much next year.