Reforming Parliament
SIR,—In Mr Alan Watkins's realistic article (June 10) on parliamentary reform, of which I approve. I notice he predicts that a Second Reading Com- mittee for non-contentious Bills will be set up.
Provision was made for this in the last Parlia- ment. The reference will be found in Hansard, October 27, 1965, at col. 292. An Order was then passed providing that if a minister tabled a motion to this effect a Bill could be referred to a Second Reading Committee. The Order provided that twenty MPs could reject such a motion by objecting to it and that it would have to be passed without amend- ment or debate. The Order provided for a mem- bership of between thirty and eighty MPs for the Second Reading Committee, which, after consider- ing the Bill, would report back to the House whether or not the Bill ought to have a second reading. After a quick search, I find that measures referred to the Second Reading Committee in January and February 1966 were the Misrepresentation Bill and
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