Modernisation Committee
23 June 2026
Speaker dots
- Speakers in the chapter
- Colour: political group
- Grey: no group
Tap or click a chapter's dots to see names and groups.
Contents updated on 23 Jun 2026
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
Official source
Offset
Transcript offset
0s
Text size
Export
Replay
Versions of this video
Transcripts may differ slightly from one version to another.
Modernisation Committee House of Commons
00:04 - 01:21
Speaker 1
Thank you and welcome to today's session of the Modernisation Committee. This is the third oral evidence session for the committee's inquiry into Backbench Business Committee and the Petitions Committee debates in the wider context of how we use time in the Commons. And I'm delighted to welcome a panel of experts and academics today. Welcome to Sir David Natzler, former Clerk of the House of Commons and Clerk to the House of Commons Reform Committee. Welcome, David.
Paul Evans, former Clerk of Committees in the House of Commons and former Clerk of the Backbench Business Committee, who is joining us online. Welcome, Paul. Dr. Louise Thompson, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Manchester. Welcome. And Tom Fleming, Associate Professor at the UCL Department of Political Science and Deputy Director, UCL Constitution Unit.
Very welcome indeed. Thank you for giving us your time. I want to talk a little bit about the allocation of time first and ask you whether in your view Backbench Business Committee should be allocated more time on days which are not a Thursday and what impact do you think this might have? Who wants to go first? Tom?
01:21 - 02:25
Speaker 4
Um, so I think, I think it would be a good idea for more backbench business to be on days other than a Thursday for two reasons, I think. I think the scheduling on a Thursday, which was originally the Wright Committee sort of warned against that becoming the dominant pattern, but it has, um, has an impact on turnout, I think, given MPs, some MPs' desire to get back to their constituencies. But then I think a further knock-on consequence of that is it also has an impact on the types of motions, the types of topics that then get brought up because I think there is a bit of pressure against bringing up votable motions that might lead to divisions at a time where members don't really want to be kept around for that, which I think has meant over time that drift away from having those sorts of motions. And I think that was one of the things the Wright Committee thought would be advantageous about backbench business was a chance to actually vote on concrete propositions rather than sort of general debates on a topic. And so moving it to other days and not just the sort of first Monday after a recess, given some other issues there, I think would allow a perhaps more attendance, more varied attendance and more varied types of motions.
The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers
Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.
The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.
Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.