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Business of the House

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for her entertaining run through the current issues. I shall do my best to respond, although perhaps not in kind. I have made it clear that the date of the Budget will be announced as soon as the Government are ready to announce it. As far as the health debate is concerned, while that would clearly give informed, thoughtful, considerate Labour Members an opportunity to set out the excellent way in which the health service has been funded and reorganised in recent times, I am sure that we shall all be looking forward to discovering whatever is the latest policy from the Conservatives. It clearly will not be the policy on which hon. Members fought the last general election, since the Conservative party seems to be junking each and every piece of that policy not only week by week, but day by day. So perhaps it would be a good opportunity, although I remind the right hon. Lady that I announced a debate on health inequalities in Government time in direct response to the request that was made previously. As for the appointment of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, perhaps I should refer the right hon. Lady to the answer that I gave last week, and indeed the week before that. I am not aware of any impending change in that regard. I am sure that the Under-Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Mr. Murphy), who has assumed those responsibilities, will continue to do the excellent job that he has been doing for some time and may well be doing for some time to come. On the education Bill, there are proper traditions about the time available to hon. Members for considering a Bill before Second Reading, and I see no reason why it should be necessary to depart from those traditions. I share the right hon. Lady’s concern about the half-term recess dates, which I had a great deal of difficulty in trying to organise. Unfortunately, just over half the local authorities in the country have their half-term in the week commencing on 20 February and just under half have it in the week commencing on 13 February. It would clearly be helpful in the organisation of business if our local authorities could agree on a single period. I am sorry that the whipping for that particular week is likely to be high, but that reflects the Government’s commitment to some rather important issues that have to be dealt with in that week. Notwithstanding determined efforts on all sides, it has not been possible to find a lighter work load for that period.