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International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill

I am extremely grateful to the hon. Lady for that intervention, because it underlines the range of matters relating to international development which we in this House have a responsibility regularly, as a matter of course and of pride, to debate. It is no secret from some of my colleagues any more than it is from the Leader of the House that I have been arguing for some time that we ought to have more debates in this Chamber on international development matters. I know that I risk offending some of my right hon. and hon. Friends in saying what I am about to say, but it is my strong view that we are too tied to ancient practices in the selection of issues for consideration in the Chamber. For historical reasons, which I do not think are particularly compelling or valid today, every year we have a welter of debates on the European Union—I am sure that those are very worth while and important—on defence in the UK and on defence in the world. Ordinarily, those are debates on a motion for the Adjournment. No doubt a case can be made for them. There can certainly be an extremely powerful argument for having, on the Floor of the House, regular debates on development assistance and progress on trade.