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Legislative Process

My hon. Friend makes a valid point, but unfortunately that option is not before us. As the Leader of the House knows, there is a case for a more radical look at the parliamentary year, and I hope that we will do that. The question before us today is whether we return to the September sittings envisaged in the Cook reforms, and I would say that there is a powerful case against that. I could quote similar figures for 2004, but I will not detain the House. Let me move on to what has occurred and has worked—that is, the ability to table parliamentary questions during what would have been this year’s September sitting. I was shocked to discover that we did not have the ability to table questions for the whole two weeks; it was a restricted privilege, for some reason, and we were allowed to do it only for four or five days. Nevertheless, full credit to hon. Members who managed between them to table 733 questions relating to every Department apart from Scotland. That is a good start, and I hope that it will be replicated. In the soundings that I have taken among hon. Friends and other colleagues, there has been enthusiasm for the ability to continue to table questions, and I believe that that is the intention of the Leader of the House. Finally, there is the issue of what we actually get up to in September, or at any rate during the summer recess. People take their holidays at different times. Like most Members, I work through the summer recess. My surgeries continue, as do my school visits. I cannot visit schools in August, for obvious reasons, but I can visit local businesses. I also find that I can get my head around issues, as I cannot always do when rushing from one meeting or engagement to another, given the fairly frenetic calendar to which we must all adhere in this place. There is also the work of all-party parliamentary groups. I am not one for jetting around the world, but I experienced a very enjoyable day out with the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker), a fellow member of the all-party angling group, when we visited Sparsholt fishery management college. It is not normally possible to find time for such activities. There are residents groups in my constituency. I commute back to Reading every night, and I can be back within an hour and five minutes. I can just about make an 8 pm meeting on a Thursday. But even given the luxury afforded to me—the ability to do that on a Thursday night, without having to cram everything into Friday—I cannot get around to visiting all the organisations that I want to visit by concentrating my activity on Fridays. I need that time. I think that many of us need that time, and many of our constituents expect to see us during that time.