Manchester City Council Bill [Lords](By Order)

I support the passage of the six Bills today, and if the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) presses his blocking motion to a vote I shall oppose it. I share the concerns that Members on both sides of the House have expressed that this is not the most sensible way of proceeding, given the sheer number of councils that have either brought forward private legislation or, as the hon. Member for Bolton, South-East (Dr. Iddon) said, might have plans to do so. As I have said several times during the course of the debate, a national framework, as suggested by the Conservative spokesman, would seem most sensible and would meet the Minister's concerns about giving local authorities the priority to decide what they wished to do in their area. It would give the councils the flexibility to adopt the legislation through a byelaw. That would add extra transparency, which is a concern when there are so many slightly different variants. If they were wildly different, it would make it easier for itinerant traders to understand the differences between areas, but because they are only slightly different, especially as there is an issue about whether councils adopt any legislation, it can be confusing. The mark of good legislation should always be that it is easy to understand whether or not one is complying with it, and that is very important.