This report makes recommendations to improve the process by which Members learn and develop their careers. If implemented the recommendations would mean: extending the period between a General Election and the date of first sitting, to allow for a longer period of induction; allocating part of most question times to topical questions; extra debates on topical matters on a weekly basis; shorter debates on most general issues and some legislation; a weekly half-hour slot for debating Select Committee Reports; more comprehensible motions; shorter speeches; greater flexibility on time limits on speeches; and the reintroduction, on a trial basis, of Private Members' Motions in Westminster Hall.

Dated October 2007. Government response to HCP 337, session 2006-07 (ISBN 9780215034670)

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A dose of sense from the voice of parliamentary reason.Throughout the expenses scandal and the lobbying scandal and all the other storms which have buffeted Parliament, Dr Tony Wright is the one MP who has consistently provided a measured, sane and sensible reaction to events. As Chair of the influential Public Administration Committee he has risen above party and partisan politics to offer a sometimes lone voice of reason. His new book considers the wider implications of the various political ructions and the public reaction to them, and argues that if we want to defend politics, then we also have to defend politicians: the class of people is intrinsic to the activity. Somebody has to do the messy business of accommodating conflicting demands and interests, choosing between competing options, negotiating unwelcome trade-offs, and taking responsibility for decisions that often represent the least worst course of action. That somebody is politicians. They give voice to our hopes, but they also, inevitably, feed our disappointments, even if their name is Obama. From one of our most erudite, intellectually rigorous yet sensible politicians, Doing Politics is just the book the nation needs.

The Committee's proposal of the introduction of an hour-long debating slot in Westminster Hall-in place of one of the current half-hour slots-is intended to provide a further timing option when applying for a debate and enable the participation of a larger number of Members. The Committee also recommends that the Monday e-petition debates and Thursday select committee and backbench business sittings be swapped to avoid the current clash of backbench business on a Thursday between the main chamber and Westminster Hall. The trial of allocation of one 90-minute debate slot by the Backbench Business Committee has come to an end. The Committee has also recommended the end of the use of adjournment motions and their replacement with 'general debate' motions. This change, which mirrors the change already made for equivalent debates in the main chamber, is designed to aid public understanding of House procedures. Finally the Committee has proposed some technical changes; that the Chairman of Ways and Means have overall responsibility for all sittings in Westminster Hall; that the Chair have the power to suspend a sitting and report disorderly conduct to the House; and that unused provisions of the standing order governing business in Westminster Hall be repealed

Debating departmental objectives and annual Reports : Second report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal minutes and written Evidence

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