I beg to move,"That the Order of 29 June 2011 (Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (Programme)) be varied as follows:""1. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Order shall be omitted.""2. Proceedings on Consideration and Third Reading shall be concluded in three days.""3. Proceedings on Consideration shall be taken in the order shown in the first column of the following Table.""4. The proceedings shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at the times specified in the second column of the Table."
| TABLE |
| Proceedings |
Time for conclusion of proceedings |
| Amendments to, and new Clauses and newSchedules relating to, Clauses 7 and 8 and Schedule 1. |
10.00 pm on the first day |
| New Clauses and new Schedules relatingto sentences of imprisonment or detention for public protection, life sentences,extended sentences and the release and recall of extended sentence prisoners. |
6.00 pm on the second day |
| New Clauses and new Schedules relatingto referral fees; new Clauses and new Schedules relating to fines on convictionin magistrates' courts. |
8.00 pm on the second day |
| New Clauses and new Schedules relatingto section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008; new Clauses andnew Schedules relating to squatting. |
10.00 pm on the second day |
| New Clauses and new Schedules relatingto, and amendments to, Part 1 (other than Clauses 7 and 8 and Schedule 1); newClauses and new Schedules relating to, and amendments to, Part 2; remaining newClauses; remaining new Schedules; amendments to Parts 3 and 4; remainingproceedings on Consideration. |
6.00 pm on the third day |
"5. Proceedings on Third Reading shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 7.00 pm on the third day."
I wish to declare, for the purposes of this motion, Report and Third Reading, all relevant disclosures made in the Register of Members' Financial Interests and the ministerial register. In particular, I mention any interest that I may have as a non-practising solicitor who has not received any payment under the legal aid scheme, and my brother-in-law's ownership of two claims management companies in which I have no financial interest. May I also declare any interest I may have in the insurance sector? My investment holdings are in the hands of a blind trust, and although I do not know what they are, I know that they did include—and therefore might possibly still include—a minority share in the Lloyds Djanogly Family LLP and various other insurance and financial shareholdings as declared by me in the Register of Members' Financial Interests at the start of this Parliament.
I will briefly introduce the motion. First, I wish to thank the Committee members, many of whom are here today, for the robust debate in Committee and the detailed scrutiny that they gave to the Bill. I look forward to their continued input to the debate over the next three days, which I am sure will be as comprehensive and informed as it was throughout our proceedings. In the 18 Committee sittings, we made excellent progress through this very significant Bill. We managed to consider all 119 clauses and 16 schedules without the use of knives or too many late sittings, and we still managed to finish early on the last day. Given that the Opposition called 47 Divisions, that was a particularly impressive achievement.
There are some considerable Government amendments to get through, and I accept that it is unusual to be adding new topics to a Bill at this stage, but the Justice Secretary explained the reason for that in the previous debate. However, three days on Report will provide adequate time to debate the amendments thoroughly. It is unusual to have three days on Report—indeed, this is the first time that this Government have made three days available for debate on Report. I hope that the additional time will be seen as reflecting our ongoing commitment to the thorough scrutiny of the Bill, and that it will be welcomed by all Members on both sides of the House. We have inserted a few knives—namely, on the second day—to ensure that we have proper time to debate the Government's new clauses on extended determinate sentences, referral fees, fines, self-defence and squatting. I believe that the motion gives the House plenty of time to debate these matters thoroughly, and we look forward to the forthcoming debate.