– in a Public Bill Committee am ar 29 Tachwedd 2012.
[Philip Davies in the Chair]
Written evidence to be reported to the House
GIB 45 Christopher Witmey
GIB 46 Neil Blackshaw
GIB 47 Campaign for National Parks – Supplementary memorandum
GIB 48 ESB International
GIB 49 UKMPG
GIB 50 Geraldeve LLP – Supplementary memorandum
GIB 51 Dr P Gardner
GIB 52 Employee Ownership Association
Ian Murray
Shadow Minister (Business, Innovation and Skills)
11:30,
29 Tachwedd 2012
On a point of order, Mr Davies. Could I ask for some guidance on whether the planning Minister would be able to give some further guidance? He wrote a letter to the Committee yesterday, in response to my right hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich who had posed some questions about whether Clause 5 was retrospective. The letter from the Minister says that he was confused, and it finishes: “I was confused by it myself.” There is no explanation in the letter about the retrospective nature of the clause, and I wondered whether there is any mechanism to have the Minister clarify the issue.
Philip Davies
Ceidwadwyr, Shipley
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. Unfortunately, the Clause that his query relates to has now been disposed of by the Committee. I am sure that there will be future consideration of the Bill at different stages and that point may be something he wants to take up then, but we cannot do it now.
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.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
