Part of Enterprise Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 10:45 am ar 7 Mai 2002.
Alistair Carmichael
Shadow Spokesperson (Energy and Climate Change), Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Energy and Climate Change)
10:45,
7 Mai 2002
Further to what the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster said, I have received a briefing from a very distinguished trade union—a closed shop, in fact—known as the Law Society, which indicates that it also supports the Amendment.
It appears that our colleagues in the Law Society are also prepared to go to the barricades on this matter. As the hon. Gentleman said, the Law Society's point is that the Majority of complex monopoly investigations can be handled within nine months. In my experience, if such investigations are allowed to take two years, it is likely that, henceforth, they will take two years.
Subsection (4) limits any orders, so that they can vary the period only to two years. With regard to that, there is not a consequential amendment, so I presume that somebody clever at the Law Society has thought that they can keep the possibility of an extended period. As the hon. Member for Huntingdon said, allowing extensions on a case by case basis makes more sense than the blanket provision.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
A group of workers who have united to promote their common interests.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
