Urgent Debates Declined — Report of Environmental Risk Management Authority

I have also received a letter from Jeanette Fitzsimons seeking to debate the release on 2 July of a report by the Environmental Risk Management Authority on the risk management of new organisms. Given that the sitting on 1 July was the last sitting of the House, this is a particular case of recent occurrence involving ministerial responsibility. While the release of a report may warrant an urgent debate, this must be exceptional, especially where working through a report’s recommendations will take some time, and an urgent debate will usually not be justified. Under these circumstances, I do not consider that the release of this report requires the business of the House to be set aside for a debate today.