New family-friendly timetable for the Commons begins

Tony Blair today faces his first Prime Minister's Question Time to be held at midday as Parliament enters a new era of family-friendly hours.

The PMQ session, the centrepiece of the parliamentary week, has been shifted from 3pm to noon under the reforms. MPs will now sit from 11.30am to 7.30pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, consigning the tradition of late-night sittings to history.

The new timetable is part of reforms designed to make proceedings in the chamber more relevant to voters. Supporters of the changes also argue that the revised hours will make it easier for MPs to juggle work with family responsibilities.

Critics, however, say they will make little practical difference and leave hundreds of MPs, whose constituencies are outside the South-east, with nothing to do on weekday evenings. Tory whips have even considered organising social events for backbenchers to fill the time.

As MPs returned yesterday from the Christmas recess, the Commons sat from 2.30pm to 10.30pm, which will be the normal practice in future for Monday sittings.

The notice for tabling parliamentary questions will be cut from two weeks to three days, enabling backbenchers to raise more topical issues. Cross-departmental question-time sessions will also begin later this month.

The parliamentary year is also being reshaped, with the Commons returning in September, ending the annual summer break of more than two months.

Robin Cook, the Leader of the Commons, said: "The whole point of our package is to make Parliament more effective and enable MPs to do their jobs better." He said the "dramatic" changes on tabling questions would provide "more challenge to ministers".

However, Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for Linlithgow, and the father of House, said the new Commons timetable would hamper efforts to hold the Government to account. He said: "It's a perfect excuse for ministers not to be in the House of Commons because they have got to be in their departments, and have all business conducted by junior ministers.

"I'm one of these old-fashioned people who think that serious business should be conducted by the cabinet minister responsible, who should be present in the House of Commons to hear what colleagues of all parties have to say about it."

Theresa May, the Tory chairman, gave a mixed welcome to the reforms. She said she backed the shorter notice period for tabling questions and the new timetable, although she believed the Commons day should start earlier, at 9.30am.

But she said she was "concerned" by the increased government use of "written statements", issued by ministers at short notice, to release information. It meant they were "not open to cross-examination on the floor of the House" which was "a worrying aspect".

WHAT THE BACKBENCH MPs THINK OF THE CHANGES

Edward Garnier combines being Conservative MP for Harborough with work as a part-time judge and as a QC specialising in media law.

"The House of Commons will be the poorer for not having members of Parliament who do things outside Parliament. You can bring direct practical experience of the effects of legislation that we pass.

"The new hours will make it very difficult to carry on. Maybe I will have to give up [outside work] or I shall have to make a decision about leaving Parliament.

I have just come from sitting with half a dozen other judges and you can talk about the Criminal Justice Bill or the latest comments of the Lord Chancellor.

"Essentially it will become a nine-to-five office building and will remove the social side of parliament, so the collegiate feel will collapse.

I have been to a number of parliaments which have full-time professional lawmakers and they are pretty dull places."

Caroline Flint, Labour MP for Don Valley, has three teenage children who live in her Yorkshire constituency.

"I'm not a London MP and my family is in Yorkshire so for me the new hours will mean more certainty about the parliamentary year and will be able to plan my constituency work and time with my family, which is important as well.

"I will probably carry on working in the evening on paperwork or meeting people I have not been able to see during the day. Being an MP is not a nine-to-five job but what we have come up with is a compromise.

"This means I can go back to my constituency on a Thursday night. If people do not believe constituency work is important we should abolish constituencies and have people selected from a party list.

My best moments as an MP have been talking to someone in my constituency about an issue and returning to Westminster fresh from that real experience.