Parliamentary Standards Bill

The Committee will be aware of the considerable pressures of time today and tomorrow. Yesterday, some 40 additional amendments and new clauses were tabled. In view of the speed with which the House is being asked to proceed with this Bill, the Chairman of Ways and Means was prepared to select the majority of them, even though they are starred on today's amendment paper. One result is that there are four additional groups, raising significant and distinct points, to be dealt with today. Hon. Members will see that a measure of restraint will be very much in their interests and will allow us to deal with as many issues as possible. For example, I would hope that there might be little or even no debate on clause 1 stand part, as all its provisions arise in subsequent groups of amendments. I hope, too, that the Committee will resist the temptation to rerun the Second Reading debate that we had yesterday, and instead will focus closely on the substance of each group of amendments. Finally, might I point out two printing errors on the first page of the amendment paper? In amendment 50, the word "third" should be omitted, and amendment 52 should refer to line 23 on page 11, not line 3.