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Business of the House

Let me begin on a consensual note by thanking the Leader of the House for her announcement that the most controversial issues in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will be dealt with by a Committee of the whole House. I also thank her for rearranging the debate in which the House will decide whether to approve the immigration rules, and for her willingness to think again about the increasingly urgent need for a debate in the Chamber on Zimbabwe. It looks as though, after four and a half weeks, we may at last learn the Zimbabwe election results from the electoral commission. Once they are public, there can be no reason for us not to debate the implications before anything else happens. The natural caution shown by the Government was understandable, but there is no reason for holding back once the results are announced and we can judge them. During one of the debates on the Finance Bill on the Floor of the House, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury said she accepted the fact that only a quarter of those on low incomes receive working tax credit. That is an agreed figure, so although the Select Committee on the Treasury is going to do some work on it, may we have a debate in the Chamber on this subject? There is plenty of evidence across constituencies of the feelings of people who are not receiving the money that they, more than anyone else in work, need. That is something that we could usefully do. If it helps the Government out of a hole, so be it, but it is more important for us to help the families who are in a financial hole. It is 11 years today since the Labour Government were first elected. That implies that we ought do as the Leader of the House has suggested and hold annual debates on how each Department is doing in terms of being open and transparent, answering questions promptly and fully, and complying with Mr. Speaker’s ruling that announcements should be made here and not outside. Will the right hon. and learned Lady give serious consideration to that? Some of us feel strongly that the phrase used 11 years ago applies now: ““Things can only get better””. We have heard from the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing that, according to his profession’s estimate, nurses spend a million hours a week on paperwork. Given that the police and teachers make the same complaint, may we have a debate about how we can remove the bureaucracy from our front-line professionals using support staff and modern technology, and release the people whom we pay to do the key jobs in this country to do the jobs that they are paid to do?