Cook: in modernising mode?

The long Westminster summer break is "unsupportable", the Commons leader has said.

Announcing details of a massive overhaul of how MPs carry out their work, Robin Cook said the House should return to Westminster before October.

The recommendations were made in a report of the modernisation committee, which is chaired by Cook.

With debate over Iraq now raging, and the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy urging Tony Blair to recall parliament, Cook said the pace of events meant change was now inevitable.

"Parliament cannot be absent from the domestic scene for too long because events tend to happen. We believe that parliament could provide more effective scrutiny if it was not absent for such a long continuous period of the summer," he said.

"I am conscious that we have now entered the season when it is customary for there to be regular demands for the recall of parliament. Agreement to the routine sitting in September would end the need for the annual ritual of demands for its recall."

Instead MPs would return and there would be a brief recess to allow for the traditional political party conference season at the end of the month.

The programme of change will include more draft bills, an end to late night sittings, shorter speeches tied to more debates and a "cross-cutting" question session on issues affecting more than one department in Westminster Hall.

Other key proposals included an earlier start to proceedings at 11.30am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, bringing forward prime minister's question time to midday on Wednesday and closing business at 6.00pm on a Thursday.

The parliamentary calendar would be announced a year in advance. One additional recess week, either Easter or Whit, would be allowed for MPs to be able to do more constituency work.

Away from timetables, the committee called for a visitor's centre to be opened in Westminster, visitor groups to be able to visit while the House is sitting and provision for the Palace of Westminster to be open on Saturdays for tours.

Cook predicted that these reforms, designed to end the perception of "a parliament that rests on its heroic history", would be part of a rolling process that in future would also look at private members bills and other issues.

"The House of Commons has shown a great capacity to adapt over the years. I would not want to say that this is going to be the last word for the next 10 years," Cook said.

He also hinted that the whips office, which killed his proposals to reform select committee appointments, would not be offering resistance this time around.

The only area of contention would be to the reform of sitting hours.

"I have consulted within government; I don't anticipate any resistance there," Cook said.

Presenting a united front, Cook launched his proposals with fellow committee members Sir Nicholas Winterton for the Conservatives and Paul Tyler, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on modernisation.

Both gave warm support to the plans.

Winterton backed the reforms as long as the government did not seek to use them as a way of getting more legislation through the Commons.

"The government is very much on trust. I am deeply concerned it could be abused by a very powerful government," he warned. "I believe it is a chance that is worth taking if we get better legislation."

Tyler said the reforms were not about making life easier for the prime minister but moving away from a "dead mock medieval palace".

"This is all about making parliament more effective not giving it an easier time. We've also been trying to make our work more visible; our audience who send us here want to see what we're doing in the day, not late at night," he said.

Ahead of the publication, electoral reform groups called on MPs to back radical reform.

Karen Bartlett, the director of Charter 88, said it was important for the committee to address the "underlying reasons why the House of Commons is often inefficient, ineffective and out of touch".

"Reformers will be looking for better scrutiny to produce better laws. More legislation should be produced in draft, with more time for MPs to scrutinise it," she said.

"Action must be taken to make debates and question times more topical and engaging for the public, rather than reflecting what happened two weeks ago.

"Parliament must project itself as a working institution, not a museum, if people are to re-connect with what happens at Westminster."

Clare Ettinghausen, director of the Hansard Society's parliament and government programme, said reform was long overdue.

"The proposals contained in the committee's report are important to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of parliament and we welcome them as an important step forward. The time to transform the Commons into a modern legislature is long overdue," she said.