Contents
Chamber business
The House met at 10.00 am.
Prayers
1Speaker’s Statement: Messages of condolence on the death of Her late Majesty
2Taking of the Oath or making of the Affirmation
Several Members present took the Oath or made the Affirmation.
The Speaker suspended the sitting until 2.30 pm.
Several other Members present took the Oath or made the Affirmation.
Resolved, That this House do now adjourn.—(Rebecca Harris.)
Adjourned at 6.05 pm until tomorrow.
Other Proceedings
4Electoral Commission (Answer to Address)
Mr Speaker reported to the House that the Vice-Chamberlain of the Household had informed him that, before her demise, the Address of 18 July, praying that Her Majesty re-appoint Lord Gilbert of Panteg as an Electoral Commissioner with effect from 1 November 2022 for the period ending 31 October 2026; appoint Roseanna Cunningham as an Electoral Commissioner with effect from 1 October 2022 for the period ending 30 September 2026; and appoint Chris Ruane as an Electoral Commissioner with effect from 1 November 2022 for the period ending 31 October 2026 was presented to Her Majesty, who was graciously pleased to comply with the request.
General Committees: Appointments
The Speaker appoints the Chair of General Committees and members of Programming Sub-Committees, and allocates Statutory Instruments to Delegated Legislation Committees.
The Committee of Selection nominates Members to serve on General Committees (and certain Members to serve on Grand Committees).
5Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill Committee
Members: Lia Nici and Paul Scully discharged and Dehenna Davison and Lee Rowley nominated in substitution.
6First Delegated Legislation Committee (draft Motor Fuel (Composition and Content) (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2022)
Members: Ms Diane Abbott, Peter Aldous, Tahir Ali, Caroline Ansell, Colleen Fletcher, Lucy Frazer, Gill Furniss, Mr Richard Holden, Adam Holloway, Kim Johnson, Andrew Jones, Andrew Lewer, Jack Lopresti, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Mr Gagan Mohindra, Jill Mortimer and Yasmin Qureshi
7Second Delegated Legislation Committee (Sanctions (EU Exit) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2022 (SI, 2022, No. 818))
Members: Lucy Allan, Sara Britcliffe, Stella Creasy, Dr James Davies, Stephen Doughty, Michael Fabricant, Anna Firth, Luke Hall, Gerald Jones, Cherilyn Mackrory, Joy Morrissey, Holly Mumby-Croft, Jesse Norman, Brendan O’Hara, Kate Osamor, Nick Smith and Beth Winter
8Third Delegated Legislation Committee (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (High-Risk Countries) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2022 (SI, 2022, No. 782))
Members: Stuart Anderson, Gareth Bacon, Paul Blomfield, Ian Byrne, Marsha De Cordova, Ruth Edwards, Andrew Griffith, Paul Howell, Fay Jones, Marco Longhi, John McDonnell, Guy Opperman, Selaine Saxby, Tulip Siddiq, Richard Thomson, Justin Tomlinson and Liz Twist
9Fourth Delegated Legislation Committee (draft Terrorism Act 2000 (Alterations to the Search Powers Code England and Wales and Scotland) Order 2022)
Members: Nickie Aiken, Paula Barker, John Cryer, Chris Elmore, Mrs Natalie Elphicke, Dr Luke Evans, Sir David Evennett, Mr Louie French, Dame Meg Hillier, Tony Lloyd, Mark Logan, Holly Lynch, Tom Randall, Mary Robinson, Richard Thomson, Tom Tugendhat and Mike Wood
10Fifth Delegated Legislation Committee (draft Health and Social Care Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2022)
Members: Mr Steve Baker, Harriett Baldwin, Dan Carden, Chris Elmore, Margaret Greenwood, Andrew Gwynne, Greg Hands, Adam Holloway, Jane Hunt, Tom Hunt, Simon Jupp, Kate Kniveton, Dr Kieran Mullan, Mr Barry Sheerman, John Spellar, Jane Stevenson and Nadia Whittome
Reports from Select Committees relating to orders for printing made during the adjournment under Standing Order No. 137
Tuesday 20 September
Correspondence with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, relating to Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts: Written evidence, to be published (Clerk of the House).
Reports from Select Committees made on Wednesday 21 September
12Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee
(1) Correspondence from the Chief Executive of UK Finance relating to fraudulent company registrations: Written evidence, to be published;
(2) Correspondence from the Minister for Business, Energy and Corporate Responsibility relating to the acquisition of Connect Topco: Written evidence, to be published;
(3) Correspondence from the Minister for Media, Data and Digital Infrastructure relating to the Online Safety Bill: Written evidence, to be published;
(4) Correspondence from the Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets: Written evidence, to be published;
(5) Correspondence from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State relating to the acquisition of Reaction Engines Ltd: Written evidence, to be published;
(6) Correspondence from the Secretary of State: Written evidence, to be published;
(7) Energy pricing and the future of the energy market: Written evidence, to be published (HC 236);
(8) Environmental, social, and corporate governance: Reporting and investing: Written evidence, to be published (HC 703);
(9) Pubs Code Adjudicator: Written evidence, to be published (HC 589)
(Darren Jones).
(1) Pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Victims Bill: Second Report, to be printed, with the formal minutes relating to the Report (HC 304);
(2) Correspondence from the Minister of State for Justice relating to the amending of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions) Order 1975: Written evidence, to be published;
(3) Correspondence from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State relating to the rollout of Section 28: Written evidence, to be published;
(4) Correspondence with the Joint Committee on the Draft Mental Health Bill relating to the Mental Health Bill: Written evidence, to be published;
(5) Correspondence with the Minister of State for Justice relating to Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector for Prisons’ annual report 2021–22: Written evidence, to be published;
(6) Correspondence with the Sentencing Council relating to the consultation on animal cruelty offences guidelines: Written evidence, to be published;
(7) Criminal Bar Association strike action: Written evidence, to be published (HC 675);
(8) Fraud and the Justice System: Part of the written evidence, to be published (HC 12);
(9) Public opinion and understanding of sentencing: Written evidence, to be published (HC 305)
(Sir Robert Neill).
(1) Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life:
(i) Third Report, to be printed, with the formal minutes relating to the Report (HC 126);
(ii) Written evidence, to be published (HC 126);
(2) Correspondence with the Secretary of State relating to her appointment: Written evidence to be published
(Sir Stephen Timms).
Lindsay Hoyle
Speaker
Papers Laid
Papers presented or laid upon the Table and delivered to the Votes and Proceedings Office on Friday 16 September 2022 under Standing Orders No. 158 and No. 159:
Other papers
Explanatory Memorandum to the Draft Telecommunications Security Code of Practice (by Command) (Julia Lopez)
MEMORANDUM
ALLOCATION OF DELEGATED LEGISLATION COMMITTEES
Pursuant to Standing Order No. 118(1), the Speaker has rescinded the allocation of the following instruments, made on Wednesday 7 September to the delegated legislation committees cited.
First Delegated Legislation Committee: The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (High-Risk Countries) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2022 (SI, 2022, No. 782)
Second Delegated Legislation Committee: The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 11) Regulations 2022 (SI, 2022, No. 792), The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 12) Regulations 2022 (SI, 2022, No. 801), The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 13) Regulations 2022 (SI, 2022, No. 814) and The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 14) Regulations 2022 (SI, 2022, No. 850)
Third Delegated Legislation Committee: draft Merchant Shipping (Additional Safety Measures for Bulk Carriers) Regulations 2022 and draft Merchant Shipping (High Speed Craft) Regulations 2022.
SPEAKER'S CERTIFICATE
VOTING BY PROXY
The Speaker has certified, under the terms of Standing Order No. 39A (Voting by proxy), that Brendan Clarke-Smith is eligible to have a proxy vote cast on his behalf, starting from 22 September 2022 and finishing on 23 September 2022. The nominated proxy is Craig Whittaker.
2Variation of proxy voting arrangement
The Speaker has certified, under the terms of Standing Order No. 39A (Voting by proxy), that Siobhan Baillie has given notice that she wishes to vary her proxy vote arrangement. Her nominated proxy will be Craig Whittaker with effect from 21 September 2022 and the arrangement will now end on 23 October 2022.
The Speaker has certified, under the terms of Standing Order No. 39A (Voting by proxy), that Theo Clarke has given notice that she wishes to vary her proxy vote arrangement. Her nominated proxy will be Craig Whittaker with effect from 21 September 2022.
ANNEX
Address of Condolence to His Majesty
Your Majesty,
Let me repeat our welcome to You, and to Her Majesty, the Queen Consort, on this solemn occasion. Members of both Houses of Parliament gather here to express our deep sympathy for the loss we have all sustained in the death of our Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth. We have seen that this is a loss felt around the world. It is a loss to the United Kingdom, the overseas territories, the crown dependencies and the many countries over which she reigned. It is a loss to the entire Commonwealth, which she did so much to nurture. It is a loss to all of us.
But we know most of all it is a loss to You, Your Majesty, and to the Royal Family. Newspapers have been filled with photographs of Her late Majesty since the news broke. The most touching have been those glimpses into the family life which were most usually kept sheltered from public view. Deep as our grief is, we know Yours is deeper, and we offer our heartfelt sympathy to You and all the Royal Family.
We know that there is nothing we can say in praise of our late Queen—Your mother—that You will not already know. Over the past days Members of the House have spoken of their encounters with Queen Elizabeth. They have spoken of her sense of duty, her wisdom, her kindness and her humour. How she touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of their constituents in her visits to every part of the country. Their words have been heartfelt.
She sat in this historic Hall, as You sit now, on many occasions. Some of those occasions were to celebrate milestones in her own reign. The addresses to celebrate her Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees shared a common thread: that our constitutional monarchy is a symbol of stability in an ever-changing world.
As Speaker Boothroyd said, Queen Elizabeth’s “wisdom and grace, […] demonstrated for all to see the value of a constitutional monarchy in securing the liberties of our citizens and the fundamental unity of this Kingdom and the Commonwealth.” On other occasions our late Queen was here to mark historic moments such as the fiftieth anniversary of the second world war, a war in which she herself served in the armed forces. And in 1988 we celebrated the three hundredth anniversary of the Revolutions of 1688 to 1689. It is perhaps very British to celebrate revolutions by presenting an Address to her Majesty.
But those Revolutions led to our constitutional freedoms and set the foundation for a stable monarchy which protects liberty. In Your first address to the nation, You recognised Your life would change as a result of your new responsibilities. You pledged Yourself to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation. These are weighty responsibilities. As the late Queen’s namesake, the earlier Queen Elizabeth, said in her final speech to parliamentarians: “To be a king and wear a crown, is a thing more glorious to them that see it, than it is pleasant to them that bear it”.
We know you hold in the greatest respect the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and our system of parliamentary government. We know that You will bear those responsibilities which fall to You with the fortitude and dignity demonstrated by Her late Majesty. When the House met after the Accession Council yesterday my first, symbolic, Act was to make the oath to be faithful and bear true allegiance to Your Majesty, King Charles.
And so it is my duty to present our Humble Address to You, our new King, to express both our sorrow at the loss of our Sovereign Lady, and our confidence in the future, in Your Reign:
Most Gracious Sovereign, We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled, express the deep sympathy felt by this House for the great sorrow which Your Majesty has sustained by the death of the late Queen, Your Majesty’s mother; extend to all the Royal Family the deep sympathy of this House in their grief, which is shared by all its Members; assure Your Majesty that Her late Majesty’s unstinting dedication over a reign of over seventy years to the service of our great country and its people, and to the service of the countries and peoples of the rest of the wider Commonwealth, will always be held in affectionate and grateful remembrance; and express to Your Majesty our loyalty to You and our conviction that You will strive to uphold the liberties and to promote the happiness of the people in all Your realms now and in the years to come.
His Majesty’s Reply to Addresses of Condolence at Westminster Hall
My Lords and Members of the House of Commons:
I am deeply grateful for the Addresses of Condolence by the House of Lords and the House of Commons, which so touchingly encompass what our late Sovereign, my beloved mother The Queen, meant to us all. As Shakespeare says of the earlier Queen Elizabeth, she was “a pattern to all Princes living”.
As I stand before you today, I cannot help but feel the weight of history which surrounds us and which reminds us of the vital Parliamentary traditions to which Members of both Houses dedicate yourselves, with such personal commitment for the betterment of us all.
Parliament is the living and breathing instrument of our democracy. That your traditions are ancient we see in the construction of this great hall and the reminders of mediaeval predecessors of the Office to which I have been called. And the tangible connections to my darling late mother we see all around us; from the fountain in New Palace Yard which commemorates The late Queen’s Silver Jubilee to the sundial in Old Palace Yard for the Golden Jubilee, the magnificent stained glass window before me for the Diamond Jubilee and, so poignantly and yet to be formally unveiled, your most generous gift to Her late Majesty to mark the unprecedented Platinum Jubilee which we celebrated only three months ago, with such joyful hearts.
The great bell of Big Ben—one of the most powerful symbols of our nation throughout the world and housed within the Elizabeth Tower also named for my mother’s Diamond Jubilee—will mark the passage of The late Queen’s progress from Buckingham Palace to this Parliament on Wednesday.
My Lords and Members of the House of Commons:
We gather today in remembrance of the remarkable span of The Queen’s dedicated service to her nations and peoples. While very young, Her late Majesty pledged herself to serve her country and her people and to maintain the precious principles of constitutional government which lie at the heart of our nation. This vow she kept with unsurpassed devotion. She set an example of selfless duty which, with God’s help and your counsels, I am resolved faithfully to follow.