REGIONAL QUESTION TIME

That this House notes that hon. Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have question time sessions in the House and are allowed to scrutinise Ministerial decisions and spending commitments; recognises that this same privilege does not extend to hon. Members from the English regions despite the fact that millions of pounds of Government money is spent every year in each of the English regions and major decisions are taken by Ministers without effective scrutiny; and calls on the Government to establish grand committees for each of the English regions and for question time sessions to be introduced in the House for each region, so that hon. Members can discuss in more detail issues relating to their locality and Ministers can be made more accountable to the region.