John Redwood's Wokingham Times Article
Posted by John Redwood, MP for Wokingham, at 13:27, Fri 13 April 2007:
Once again Parliament is on a long holiday. It is very frustrating, when there are so many things the government is doing that need proper examination.
In the last few weeks our debate on the contentious Sexual Orientation Regulations was far too short. Breaking up early for Easter prevented Parliament finishing its work on super casinos, where there now needs to be discussion between the Lords who voted No and the Commons who voted Yes. The government announced its decision to split the Home Office and to create a new Department of Justice just as Parliament was going away for another recess, stopping an early debate on the merits of those proposals.
Parliament has three main functions. The first is to decide on new laws which the government wishes to recommend. If they are put to us as Bills, we do have some time to talk about them, and to propose amendments to make them better. If the government insists on putting complicated matters into regulations, we have just 90 minutes for discussion followed by a take it or leave it vote. They cannot be amended.
The second is to cross examine the government about things that have gone wrong, things that need doing, or things that should not be done by government at all. When Parliament is not in session there is no official questioning of Ministers, and no opportunity for Ministers to set out their case to Parliament. As I write this we are in the midst of a crisis for fifteen sailors taken by Iran. There could be another random event tomorrow. If Parliament is in session Ministers can be properly cross examined, and ideas put forward which they have to consider which might help resolve the issue.
The third is to supervise the way government departments are run and spend our money. This needs to be done continuously, as they spend so much and make so decisions. Of course we should have Easter and Christmas off, and allow ourselves a summer holiday, but a full two weeks off in April limits the time to do this important work more than is desirable.
We have discovered that Margaret Beckett at Environment cost us a small fortune by mishandling the grants to farmers, leaving us with a huge fine from the EU on top of the cost of sorting out the mess. John Reid’s plans to split the Home Office will doubtless cost us a lot of money. Tessa Jowell still has not found a profitable use for the Dome. These matters and many like them need to be debated, and suggestions made. Ministers are not running things well, so there is all the more need for scrutiny of their actions.
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