Meeting of the Parliament 27 January 2026 [Draft]
The timings provided are the result of detailed work conducted by Parliament staff, and business managers were of the view that the timings strike the right balance between allowing the proper airing of amendments and going beyond that. It is, of course, for the chair—and we should all respect the authority of the chair—to determine how each group of amendments, and indeed the entire stage 3 process, is conducted.
On the accuracy of the predicted timings and of the time offered, I draw the member’s attention to last week’s stage 3 business, when the predicted timings were accurate almost to the minute and, indeed, also catered for one of his colleagues taking 17 minutes to make a single spoken contribution. I think I speak for the majority of those here when I express the view that I hope we will avoid any contributions of a similar length today or tomorrow, from either Mr Mountain or anyone else, but I have confidence that, in the chairing and handling of the stage 3 process, he, and all members, will be afforded the appropriate opportunity to have their say.