– in a Public Bill Committee am ar 29 Tachwedd 2001.
On a point of order, Mrs. Roe. You will know that when the knife came down this morning the Committee had scrutinised four clauses and partly scrutinised another clause and another amendment, which left 22 clauses and 22 amendments completely unscrutinised. However, in the melee of the guillotine, you may not be aware that we were in the middle of debating amendment No. 43, which was tabled in my name and that of my hon. Friends. Mr. Stevenson, who was in your place, brought down the guillotine and put the amendment to the vote.
The Labour Members must have been greatly compelled by the force of my amendment, as nearly all of them voted aye to that amendment. Mr. Stevenson declared, ``The ayes have it, the ayes have it.'' We were content that our amendment had been duly taken and recorded as such. However, Mr. Stevenson subsequently admitted to a little confusion and took the vote again. I wonder whether you could rule on the directions in ``Erskine May'' about rerunning votes that do not go as the Government want them to, and whether Mr. Stevenson was in order.
I understand that there was some confusion over the question relating to amendment No. 43 this morning, which was why Mr. Stevenson decided to put the question a second time, and that was certainly within his power. The amendment was then negatived. Clause 41 Child to live with adopters before application