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Business of the House

The right hon. Lady raised a number of points. I would like to express what I am sure is the feeling of the whole House, and send our sincere condolences to the widow of Mr. Newlove. We all want to learn the lessons of that terrible crime and we continue to determine to take action against serious violent crime. The right hon. Lady asked about organ donation and about Government policy on organ donation. The policy is clear. We set up a taskforce, which has reported. We want to increase the amount of organs available for donation. That is important to save lives, because all too often at present people die while they are on the waiting list for organ transplant. The proposals arising from the work of the taskforce will be implemented by the Government. As for presumed consent and whether we should move to an opt-out system, that is not Government policy, but a subject on which the Government are keen to see further and wider debate. It is not a party political issue. We all need to think about how policy can ensure that organs are available for donation. The right hon. Lady made some points about the SSRB and complained that, as she put it, we had ““sat”” on the report since July. There is a particular context of public sector pay this time around in which we are considering the question of MPs' pay. We want to be sure that we do what should have been done many years ago: end the system whereby we vote on our own pay. At the same time as we published the SSRB report we issued a written ministerial statement, which states that we will propose that we do not award ourselves more than 2 per cent., and which also proposes a mechanism for ending the system whereby we vote on our own pay. The right hon. Lady mentioned timing in relation to the tabling of the motions. We tabled the motions yesterday and they are to be debated next Thursday. That will ensure that, should they want to, Members have enough time to table amendments to the motions. A number of Members have already done so. In her usual way, the right hon. Lady went on to allege that the Prime Minister treats Parliament with contempt. I say to her that in his first six months this Prime Minister has come to the House to give oral statements more times than the last two Prime Ministers did during their whole terms of office. That is about accounting for things. [Interruption.]As I said, in his first six months he has made more oral statements than the last two Prime Ministers did during their whole terms of office. That is treating the House with respect and bringing issues before it. I will look into the right hon. Lady's point about the consistency of answers between different Departments on the question of data protection in Departments. This is the 15th time that the right hon. Lady and I have done business questions together. I see that she is a creature of habit. The pattern is clear: if there is a bandwagon, she will jump on it and if there is a myth, she will peddle it. She has carried on in that vein today.