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

I do not think that I have time. Five of the motions tabled tonight would reform how the House handles petitions and would give opportunities for debate on certain public petitions. We could say that that is a small step, but it is worth taking. Let me turn to the other motions. The Committee's report proposes a road map for reform. As we have seen in this debate, there is, unsurprisingly, disagreement about certain elements of that road map. My hon. Friend the Member for Reading, West said that we were moving in an consensual bubble today, but there were differences of opinion, as there have been in the past. Consensus has proved, across the decades of reform, difficult to reach and to agree. The past reforms of the House have not been a continuous process, as many hon. Members have emphasised that they should be. That is one of the most important things that we can take away from the debate. We have moved to a position where we have a fairly continual process of reform, and Members support that. Much of the focus on reform in the past has been based on procedural change, aimed at improving efficiency. Since 1960, successive Procedure Committees—