The long wait is just about over and this blog will also now
come back to life. After no less than 5 months since the Water Bill
was introduced in the Commons (surely an all-time record for a
Government Bill) it is at last about to be given a Second
Reading.
Judging from the proposed business programme now published in advance of
this Thursday's business statement, it looks as if that
statement will include an announcement that Second Reading will
take place in the week of 25 November after which the Bill will be
referred to a Public Bill Committee, which the business programme
indicates must conclude by Tuesday 17 December. That would mean at
most 10 committee sittings on 5 days (3, 5,10, 12 and 17 December),
so a pretty tight programme, particularly if evidence sessions are
programmed , as is now common, for the first 2 days. As the Commons
rises for the Christmas recess on 19 December, remaining stages
will then have to follow after they come back on 6 January.
