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Business of the House

The Personal Care at Home Bill, which has been through the Lords, is important, and it is right that it should come back to the House of Commons so that we can ensure that those with the greatest needs get free care in their own home. I would have thought that the hon. Gentleman welcomed the opportunity for the House to consider the Lords amendments. As far as businesses are concerned, the Treasury briefing that I have here says:""Over 200,000 businesses"—" I will get the precise figure, but it is not half of what the Prime Minister said, as the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) suggested—""employing over 1.4 million people have been helped with cash flow by spreading payment of over £5 billion in tax bills."" That is important. I would say that the hon. Gentleman should be supporting us in allowing the deficit to rise to help businesses so that they do not go out of business. Obviously, it is important that we settle the issue of the figures, but the substantive point is that we have been helping businesses through the recession. We have been helping not only businesses, but home owners—financial support and advice has helped 330,000 to stay in their homes. In addition to the time to pay scheme from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the car scrappage scheme, numerous other schemes have helped businesses through the recession. The Prime Minister's record on this, bearing in mind what happened to the economy when there was an unprecedented global financial shock, is that he took action to support businesses, to support jobs, and to support people staying in their own home. Instead of carping about what the absolutely precise figure is, the hon. Gentleman should be welcoming the support that was given to businesses in his constituency and around the country. We do care about the figures, and I will get accurate figures to him, but let us just focus on the substance. The hon. Gentleman talked about the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill. I reiterate what I said last week at business questions. We strongly support that Bill—there is no doubt about that—and we also strongly support the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 (Amendment) Bill. However, for a Bill to succeed, it not only has to complete its passage in this House, but to have made some progress in the House of Lords. He knows that at this point in the Session—especially given that although we have some rudimentary control over business in this House, the Government have no control over the House of Lords and there are no timetabling procedures there—he should focus his attention, as we are, on seeking the support of the official Opposition. If they stopped their blocking of the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill, we could get it through—[Interruption.] They are protesting, but they objected on Third Reading, and it was the Chair of the Public Bill Committee that considered the Bill who called, "Object." I ask the official Opposition to get their Members to stop blocking the Bill. If it is the official Opposition's position, they should unblock the Bill. As for the proposals from the Wright Committee—the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons—if the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome thinks there is something about the Standing Orders that we have drafted and that have been on the Order Paper for a number of days—[Interruption.] It is a consultation, because it is actually on the Order Paper. The hon. Gentleman can look at it, and if he thinks that the Standing Orders do not reflect the will of the House—if he thinks they go further or do less than that—he can come and ask me to re-table them in the form that he believes will accurately express that. However, I do not think that he will do so, because the Standing Orders have been drafted exactly to express the will of the House. The point is that we are not having further decision making on this; we are having enactment. Therefore, we have made it clear what we are doing. If there are any technical objections that we have not done enough or that we have done too much, that is fine, but I do not think that that will be case. We have tried completely and faithfully to put into Standing Orders the resolutions of the House. They will be going forward, but not until Monday, at which point the House should approve them. The hon. Gentleman should be directing his attention to working to ensure that this House seizes the opportunity of completing the process of reform by getting the Standing Orders agreed on Monday.