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Report from the House of Commons Reform Committee on Rebuilding the House

Absolutely. The House business committee would, I think, be better able to identify, as the Library and the Clerks Department have done—without increasing the number of times that we sit, and there are no proposals in the report to increase them—all the days on which business finishes early. Second Readings of simple Bills to which there is little opposition do not require a whole day of debate. Some of that time could be banked to ensure that, more often, two days were allotted for Report stages, and—crucially—that the knives that are currently inserted to protect the business that follows were inserted before, rather than after, the business that we most want and need to discuss.