Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you for the invitation. It was a pleasure.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think Sue's leaving me to answer that one. Is Canada the same as Serbia and Hungary? I can't give you a quick answer to this question, in that I think it's just the nature of parliamentary politics. If you're in government, inevitably you see that the pressure's on governing

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm afraid I can't really add much more to what Sue said, because Scotland was the first thing that came into my head as well. I think part of the reason why South Africa rejected the idea of delegating the management of business to a smaller committee was a reflection of some

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I might hand it over to Sue again to talk about some of the sunset clauses that have been introduced. I think that in exceptional circumstances, you need to do exceptional things, but it shouldn't be inevitable... I think there is a risk to doing something now that then has a p

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think I can answer that question quite quickly by saying that I wouldn't put Canada in the same category as Serbia or Hungary.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I had worked out as the questions went on that this was an allusion to what was going on in Canada. In response to Mr. Richards' questions, I'd make the same point again, which is that I think any change to standing orders that takes place now has to be regarded carefully becaus

Procedure and House Affairs committee  What I might do is ask Sue, my colleague, to come in on part of this as well, if that's okay. My sense is that it is quite simply a product of the fact that you cannot get through as much business. The sittings have been shortened, for practical reasons as much as anything else.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, I'll sort of answer the second half of this question, and hopefully I won't take up too much time. I think this was the blog that was mentioned earlier, which has characterized an awful lot of our work internationally and my previous role in the British government and th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This is a issue that has come up in a number of parliaments. I might hand it over to my colleague Sue, who may be able to clarify some of this, but certainly in a number of parliaments that decision has been taken, so the decisions of the entire parliament have been delegated to

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. All of these things are of a concern, yes, absolutely.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think they're all altering the nature of the way in which parliaments are used to operating and limiting the ability of certain parliamentarians to contribute.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I get a sense you're alluding to stuff that is beyond my knowledge and very specific cases.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think everything you're referring to, anything that limits what had been the previous rights of parliamentarians to introduce certain things, are, obviously, issues of concern.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think that's the risk, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I think there were two main examples in my mind at the time. One was Hungary and the other was Serbia. In Hungary, Viktor Orbán essentially declared a state of emergency powers quite quickly. He generated an awful lot of publicity. In Serbia, it was slightly different. I t