Taxi for Jim Knight...

At 9.30am today, a well attended Westminster Hall debate was held on Sixth Form funding. However, when Mike Penning, who had called the debate, stood up to begin his speech, the relevant Minister had not turned up. The chairman of the debate, Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock, said that in ten years as a chairman he had never experienced this and that the failure to be present at the beginning of the debate showed a lack of respect for Parliament. After the debate began, the Minister turned up, although without officials and without his Parliamentary Private Secretary. His excuse was that the traffic was heavy coming from his department in Marsham Street, 800 yards away from the House of Commons.

Given that the missing Minister, Jim Knight MP, is already facing allegations of misleading Parliament over the SATs fiasco, you would think he would be more careful about complying with Parliamentary protocol, wouldn't you?

UPDATE: From Hansard at 12.30. Mr Speaker is not best pleased.

Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. You kindly granted an Adjournment debate in Westminster Hall for 90 minutes this morning on the important subject of the further education funding crisis. I wonder whether you are aware that no Minister was present for the start of that debate, that there was no Parliamentary Private Secretary either, and that the officials arrived 20 minutes late. Is there any way that this sort of insult to the House, with no Minister present for the start of the debate, can be addressed in future?

Mr. Speaker: I am not very happy about the report that the hon. Gentleman has made, and I must look into it. Ministers should always be courteous to the House and ensure that they turn up for debates. We all have to be good timekeepers in this House, and there is no reason why Ministers should not be good timekeepers.