The Anguilla House of Assembly perhaps has had its briefest sitting in its history on Tuesday, November 10, 2020.
The sole matter on the agenda was the first reading of a Bill for the Magistrate’s Code of Procedure (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2020, the mover being the Attorney General, Mr. Dwight Hosford.
That reading took just a few seconds during the 10 o’clock meeting of the House. Including the opening prayer by the Chaplain, Pastor Hugo Brooks, the reading of the agenda by the Clerk of the House, Mr. Lennox Vanterpool, and the reading of the Bill, the entire sitting took about ten minutes.
The Government has undertaken to hold at least two sittings of the House of Assembly a month in order to avoid having a backlog of legislative matters to deal with; but, when that agenda is so limited, it is matter to consider.
The Speaker, Mrs. Barbara Webster-Bourne, while agreeing with the principle of frequent meetings of the House, expressed disappointment that only one very short matter was on the agenda. She urged Government to ensure that more Bills are tabled in the Assembly on a monthly basis, rather than waiting until the end of the year to have a congested agenda.
The sitting may have been a waste of legislative time when both Government and Opposition members could have been otherwise productively engaged. Furthermore, the meeting was so brief that there are doubts that the general public, for whom the live broadcasts of the House Assembly are intended, was aware of the sitting.
