MPs were told to put their house in order yesterday and get on with business to avoid backlogs in legislation.

It was also suggested that Parliamentary recesses be shortened in order to deal with laws.

The calls came yesterday at the Senate and were prompted by a motion for Senators to meet on Monday as well as Wednesday to deal with outstanding legislation.

Yesterday Senate President Albert Jackson said the Senate was in the same position last summer due to a build up of legislation caused by losing time in the House of Assembly.

"We are facing a similar situation right now, that for whatever reason the legislature has been slowed almost to a grinding halt by matters which perhaps were not intended to be so time consuming,'' said Sen. Jackson.

"The result is that the Senate is likely to be confronted with a build-up of important legislation which should have been in the pipeline in November but which is not going into the pipeline until late December.'' Sen. Jackson added: "I see an urgent need for the legislature at large to give very close and careful attention to the priorities which have to be established.'' MPs in the House of Assembly have been tied up since November with debating the Throne Speech -- which used up three sessions -- the Franchise Committee report, the Prohibited Restaurant Bill and several pieces of legislation.

Once a piece of business has been finished in the House it is sent to the Senate for further debate and ratification.

Independent Senator Alf Oughton said he would attend the extra session on Monday but questioned the need for long recesses.

He said that Senate was in danger of putting off debates on issues such as the Health Care Review because other debates would dominate the alloted time.

"What we really should be looking at is the amount of time spent in recess.

Do we really need six weeks at Christmas and six weeks over Easter? "Every time we attempt to go into recess we have an argument about whether we should have an extra day's sitting.

"In February we will have things like the Health Care Review report which will be shelved again because of the budget,'' he said.

Government's Senate Leader Lynda Milligan-Whyte defended the situation, but she admitted it took three separate sessions in the House to deal with the Throne Speech -- during which the Senate could debate nothing.

"I will take the wish of the Senate back to Government to see if during sessions when the House is debating issues like the Budget or Throne Speech we can debate other issues,'' she said.

"That will go a long way towards dealing with the backlog that has happened.'' Report from Senate on Page 7