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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

It is worth putting on the record the fact that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol West (Stephen Williams) said, the evidence from academics such as Professor Ron Johnston is clear. They said that in most cases inquiries made little impact, and they clearly saw them largely as an exercise in allowing parties to seek influence over the Electoral Commission's recommendations. They also said that it would be ““a major error”” to assume that all inquiries of the past largely involved the public having their say. They were very clear about that, and they welcomed what the Government were doing. On the question of how many public hearings there will be, we have trebled the time for written representations and we have added a four-week period for counter-representations, which we think will be a more effective process than the legal process that existed— One hour having elapsed since the commencement of proceedings on consideration of Lords amendments, the debate was interrupted (Programme Order, this day). The Deputy Speaker put forthwith the Question already proposed from the Chair (Standing Order No. 83F), That this House agrees with Lords amendment 2. Question agreed to. Lords amendment 2 accordingly agreed to. The Deputy Speaker then put forthwith the Question necessary for the disposal of the business to be concluded at that time (Standing Order No. 83F). Lords amendments 3 to 7, 9 to 15, 18 and 21 to 104 agreed to, with Commons financial privileges waived in respect of Lords amendment 31.