Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)

The Whips’ Office will shortly distribute draft groupings of amendments to noble Lords in the usual manner. As the Government are neutral, any changes requested will simply be actioned. The sponsor, my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton, will lead on negotiating any changes, should he wish to do so. The Government will then communicate the final groupings in the usual manner to aid the Committee in having an orderly debate. This is the normal practice, including for PMBs that the Government do not support that have Committee stages. My noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton will set a target at the end of today to aid colleagues in knowing when they might need to prepare speeches for or whether topics they know about or are interested in may be debated tomorrow. We expect the House to rise at a convenient point around 3 pm as per the usual conventions of the House. We will maintain the typical flexibility of the House and might need to rise slightly beyond or before this point to conclude groups being debated. This ensures orderly debate, and the spirit of good business management means that we do not have to undertake the complex exercise of noting down everyone in attendance to ensure that they are there when the group resumes on a subsequent day. It also aids the overall flow of debate on such an important topic. At the conclusion of the final group, at a convenient point, I will move to adjourn the House. I ask all noble Lords to respect the usual conventions regarding speaking times in Committee and to respect all noble Lords who are speaking in the debate. The Whips, of course, will continue to monitor the debate in the usual manner. Finally, this is most important: sincere views are held on all sides regarding this Bill. Please respect that and, tomorrow and in the upcoming debates, remember courtesy and respect, and show those watching the House of Lords at its best. I trust that if we continue to respect each other, we will have a thought-provoking debate tomorrow.