House of Commons SESSIONAL RETURNS Session 2008–09 3 December 2008– 12 November 2009 RETURNS to Orders of the Honourable The House of Commons, dated 26 November 2009—(The Chairman of Ways and Means) HOUSE, COMMITTEES OF THE WHOLE HOUSE, GENERAL COMMITTEES AND SELECT COMMITTEES Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 25 January 2010 HC 1 Published on 27 January 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 INTRODUCTORY NOTE The Sessional Returns were first published in consolidated form for Session 1986– 87. Returns of: i. Closure of debate in the House and in Standing Committees dating back to 1887 and 1907 respectively; ii. Delegated Legislation from Session 1974–75; iii. Private Bills and Private Business from 1981; iv. Sittings of the House from Session 1960–61; and v. Special Procedure Orders from Session 1972–73 have been placed in the House of Commons Library where they may be inspected by Members. Copies have also been supplied to the Parliamentary Archives, where they are available to the public for inspection. Requests for inspection should be addressed to the Parliamentary Archives, Houses of Parliament, London, SW1A 0PW (020 7219 3074). Hours of inspection are from 9.30am to 5.00pm Mondays to Fridays. The Public Bill Office of the House of Commons maintains a Public Bill Index from 1922 to the present day. A Weekly Information Bulletin showing the progress of all legislation, listing Committee meetings and providing other information relating to the business of the House is compiled by the Public Information Office of the House of Commons and published by The Stationery Office Limited. Public and Private Bills and Delegated Legislation are also listed by session in the Part II Index to the relevant House of Commons Journal. A great deal of other procedural information can also be derived from this Index, for example the date of each stage in the passage of a particular Bill through the House of Commons, and instances of closure in the House and in Committees of the whole House. The Journal is published by The Stationery Office Limited. SESSIONAL RETURNS 2008–09 1 Contents Sessional Return Page 1 Business of the House 4 A Questions 4 B Notices of Motions for an Early Day 4 C Disciplinary Powers of the Chair 4 D Public Petitions 5 2 Closure of Debate, Proposal of Question and Allocation of Time 6 A Closure of Debate 6 B Power of Chair to Propose Question 7 C (1) Allocation of Time 8 C (2) Allocation of Time (Programme Motions) 8 C (3) Allocation of Time (Business of the House Motions) 18 3 Sittings of the House 19 A Days and hours of sitting in the House 19 B Days and hours of sitting in Westminster Hall 27 C Distribution of time on the floor of the House between principal types of business 31 D Distribution of time in Westminster Hall between applicable types of business 34 4 Private Bills and Private Business 35 A Private Bills, Private Business and Special Procedure Orders: General 35 B Dates of the House’s consideration of the several stages of Private Bills 37 C Opposed Bill Committees 38 D Committee on Unopposed Bills 38 E Bills to confirm Orders under the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act 1936 39 F Court of Referees 39 G Standing Orders Committee 40 H Special Procedure Orders 40 I Joint Committees 41 5 Public Bills 41 A General Summary 41 B Bills which received the Royal Assent 42 C Bills which did not receive the Royal Assent 43 D House’s Consideration of the several stages of Public Bills 48 E Consideration of Bills in Committee of the whole House 62 F Consideration of Bills in General Committees 62 6 Delegated Legislation and Legislative Reform Orders 69 A Instruments laid before the House 69 B Instruments considered by the Joint and Select Committees on Statutory Instruments 70 C Consideration in the House and in Delegated Legislation Committee 71 2 SESSIONAL RETURNS 2008-09 D Chairmen and Members of Committees on Delegated Legislation 82 E Draft Legislative Reform Orders 85 F Remedial Orders under the Human Rights Act 1998 86 7 European Legislation, etc 86 A Consideration by the European Scrutiny Committee 86 B Consideration on a Motion on the floor of the House and in European Committees 86 8 Grand Committees and the Regional Affairs Committee 90 A Northern Ireland Grand Committee 90 B Welsh Grand Committee 90 C Scottish Grand Committee 91 D Regional Affairs Committee 91 E East of England Regional Grand Committee 91 F East Midlands Regional Grand Committee 92 G North East Regional Grand Committee 92 H North West Regional Grand Committee 93 I South East Regional Grand Committee 93 J South West Regional Grand Committee 94 K West Midlands Regional Grand Committee 94 L Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Grand Committee 95 9 Chairmen’s Panel 96 10 Select Committees 98 A SELECT COMMITTEE SUMMARY STATISTICS 98 B SELECT COMMITTEE ATTENDANCE, WORK, PUBLICATIONS ETC 98 1 Administration 100 2 Arms Export Controls 102 3 Business, Innovation and Skills* 105 4 Children, Schools and Families 111 5 Communities and Local Government 117 6 Culture, Media and Sport 122 7 Defence 126 8 Draft Bribery Bill (Joint Committee) 132 9 Energy and Climate Change 134 10 Environmental Audit 139 10A Sub-Committee on Environmental Information 144 11 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 145 11A Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Sub-Committee 149 12 European Scrutiny 151 13 Finance and Services 156 14 Foreign Affairs 158 15 Health 164 16 Home Affairs 169 16A Home Affairs Sub-Committee 175 17 Human Rights (Joint Committee) 177 18 International Development 183 19 Issue of Privilege (Police Searches on Parliamentary Estate) 188 SESSIONAL RETURNS 2008–09 3 20 Justice 190 21 Liaison 196 21A Liaison Sub-Committee 199 21B National Policy Statements Sub-Committee 200 22 Members’ Allowances 201 23 Modernisation of the House of Commons 203 24 Northern Ireland Affairs 205 25 Procedure 210 26 Public Accounts 212 27 Public Administration 221 28 Reform of the House of Commons 227 29 Regional Committees 229 29A East of England Committee 229 29B East Midlands Committee 231 29C North East Committee 234 29D North West Committee 237 29E South East Committee 239 29F South West Committee 241 29G West Midlands Committee 244 29H Yorkshire and the Humber Committee 247 30 Regulatory Reform 249 31 Science and Technology** 252 31A Sub-Committee on Students and Universities 258 31B Science and Technology Sub-Committee 260 32 Scottish Affairs 262 33 Selection 266 34 Standards and Privileges 268 35 Statutory Instruments 270 36 Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee) 272 37 Tax Law Rewrite Bills (Joint Committee) 275 38 Transport 277 39 Treasury 282 39A Treasury Sub-Committee 289 40 Welsh Affairs 291 41 Work and Pensions 297 C SELECT COMMITTEE STAFFING AND COSTS IN DETAIL 302 1 Select Committee Staff 302 2 Select Committee Printing Costs and Page Count 305 2A Page Count and Costs: Financial Year 2008–09 305 2B Page Count and Costs: Session 2008–09 305 3 Select Committee Expenses 307 3A Financial Year 2008–09 307 3B Session 2008–09 309 Appendix 1 - MEMBERS SERVING ON COMMITTEES 312 * With effect from 1 October 2009, the name of the Committee was changed from the Business and Enterprise Committee to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee. ** With effect from 1 October 2009, the name of the Committee was changed from the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee to the Science and Technology Committee. 4 SESSIONAL RETURNS 2008-09 1 Business of the House Information and statistics relating to Questions; Notices of Motions for an Early Day; the exercise of disciplinary powers by the Chair and by order of the House; and Public Petitions. A Questions Number of Questions which appeared on the Order Paper: for written answer on a named day 8,907 for ordinary written answer 47,285 Total for written answer 56,192 for oral answer 4,113 number reached for answer in the House 1,314 Total number of Questions 60,305 Number of Urgent Questions 11 Number of days upon which replies to Questions for oral answer were given in the 137 House Number of days upon which replies to Questions for oral answer were given in 0 Westminster Hall Number of Questions reached for oral answer in Westminster Hall 0 B Notices of Motions for an Early Day Total number of Notices of Motions given for an Early Day 2,272 including the number which were Prayers for the annulment of Statutory 30 Instruments C Disciplinary Powers of the Chair Members ordered to withdraw Number of Members ordered to withdraw from the House under Standing Order No. 43 (Disorderly conduct) in the House 1 in Committee of the whole House 0 Total 1 Members suspended from the service of the House Number of Members suspended from the service of the House by order made under Standing Order No. 1 44 (Order in debate) by orders made otherwise 0 Total 1 SESSIONAL RETURNS 2008–09 5 D Public Petitions Total number of Petitions 123 Number of Petitions presented at the times specified by Standing Order No. 154 (Time and 111 manner of presenting petitions) Number of Petitions on which observations were published pursuant to Standing Order No. 97 156 (Printing of petitions and of ministerial replies) 6 SESSIONAL RETURNS 2008-09 2 Closure of Debate, Proposal of Question and Allocation of Time Information and statistics relating to applications of Standing Order No. 36 (Closure of debate) in the House, in Committee of the whole House and in Committees; applications of Standing Order No.