"WE CAN'T COVER ONE AMENDMENT EVERY 3 MINUTES!"- ÖPIK

4.54.45pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 27th Mar 2008

"WE CAN'T COVER ONE AMENDMENT EVERY 3 MINUTES!"- ÖPIK

Lembit Öpik, Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson and MP for Montgomeryshire, has hit out at the impossible timetable for scrutiny offered by the Government to discuss amendments to the Housing and Regeneration Bill, which is due to be presented on Monday:

"137 amendments have been tabled at Report stage of the Housing and Regeneration Bill. Each of these amendments must come under proper parliamentary scrutiny. That works out as one amendment every three minutes. Even the racing commentator John McCruick couldn't talk that fast!

"The whole purpose of Parliamentary debate is scrutiny. Yet with so little time to discuss so many changes, nobody can seriously believe we've got the space to do our job. Also, by tabling their amendments unacceptably late in the day, they've failed to allow parliamentarians the opportunity to thoroughly review each of them.

"This is yet another example of the Government's stronghold on the parliamentary process. It's as if the only thing that matters is to get the legislation through, even if it's wrong. After all, they've already identified 137 things they got wrong the first time round. Why should we believe it's right this time?"