(Worthing West) (Con): On
yesterday’s Order Paper, the first listed item of business,
subject to urgent questions and statements, was the
Holocaust Memorial Bill. There was a notice
on the Order Paper that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing
and Communities would make a statement on the estimated cost of
the memorial. The statement says, in column 13WS of Hansard, that
the House was to be updated on the forecasted costs
“Ahead of Second Reading of the Bill”—[Official Report, 28 June
2023; Vol. 375, c. 13WS.]
That written statement was not available at the end of Prime
Minister’s questions at 12.36. It became available in the Library
at 13.51, over an hour and a quarter later. It was not mentioned
by either Minister in the debate on the Bill, and no Member of
this House knew about it.
Will my right hon. Friend say to parliamentary Clerks, if not to
the Cabinet, that that is no way to treat this House? Information
that is important to the House should be available for a debate,
especially as the statement said that the estimated cost of the
memorial had gone up from £102 million to £138 million—an
increase of over a third in one year. I hope she will agree that
that is not the way to treat this place.
The Leader of the House of Commons (): I thank my hon. Friend for
raising this matter and for his contribution to the debate
yesterday. He will know that I take these matters very seriously.
We have stood up some additional training for the parliamentary
teams and Clerks in Government Departments. We—my noble Friend
and I—have also brought all the
permanent secretaries over to Parliament and told them exactly
what Members need to conduct their business well. He will know
that I have also conducted, with the Commission, a survey of all
Members to see what more we can do to ensure that they can do
their job in the most effective way. I will certainly write to
the Department and make sure it has heard his remarks today, and
I will feed it back to the permanent secretary.
