House of Commons

Session 2006 - 07 Internet Publications House of Commons Standing Orders - Public Business

	8
		Sittings of the House
	Sittings of the
	House.
		9.—(1) Subject to the provisions of Standing Order No. 1B
		(Election of Speaker by secret ballot), the House shall meet on
		Mondays and Tuesdays at half‑past two o’clock, on
		Wednesdays at half‑past eleven o’clock and on Thursdays at
		half‑past ten o’clock and will first proceed with private
		business, motions for unopposed returns and questions:
		Provided that, when the House sits on a Wednesday which
		immediately follows a periodic adjournment of more than two
		days or is the first day of a Session, references to specific times
		in the Standing Orders of this House shall apply as if that day
		were a Monday.
		(2) No motion for the adjournment of the House shall be
		made on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday until all
		the questions asked at the commencement of public business
		shall have been disposed of, and, save as provided in paragraph
		(1) of Standing Order No. 24 (Adjournment on specific and
		important matter that should have urgent consideration), no
		Member other than a Minister of the Crown may make such a
		motion on any day before the orders of the day or notices of
		motions shall have been entered upon.
		(3) At ten o’clock on Mondays and Tuesdays, at seven
		o’clock on Wednesdays and at six o’clock on Thursdays (the
		‘moment of interruption’), the proceedings on any business
		then under consideration shall, save as otherwise provided in
		paragraph (1) of Standing Order No. 15 (Exempted business),
		be interrupted; and, if the House be in committee, the chairman
		shall leave the chair, and report progress and ask leave to sit
		again; and if a motion has been made for the adjournment of the
		House (unless that motion is included in a motion to be made
		after the interruption of business under paragraph (2) of
		Standing Order No. 15 (Exempted business)), or of the debate,
		or in committee that the chairman do report progress, or do
		leave the chair, every such motion shall lapse.
		(4) On the interruption of business the closure may be
		claimed; and if moved, or if proceedings under Standing Order
		No. 36 (Closure of debate) be then in progress, the Speaker or
		the chairman shall not leave the chair until the questions
		consequent thereon and any further question, as provided in
		Standing Order No. 36 (Closure of debate), have been decided.
		(5) An order of the day not disposed of before the termination
		of a sitting shall be deferred to such day being a day on which
		the House ordinarily sits as the Member in charge of that order
		may appoint and any order of the day not reached before the
		termination of a sitting shall, unless the Member in charge of
		the order has given other instructions to the Clerk at the Table,
		stand over until the next sitting.
		(6) After the business under consideration at the moment of
		interruption has been disposed of, no opposed business shall be
		taken, save as provided in Standing Order No. 15 (Exempted
		business).
		(7) The House shall not be adjourned except in pursuance of
		a resolution or by the Speaker in pursuance of Standing Order
		No. 46 (Power of the Speaker to adjourn House or suspend
		sitting):
		Provided that, when a substantive motion for the
		adjournment of the House has been made at or after the
		moment of interruption, the Speaker shall, after the expiration
		of half an hour after that motion has been made, adjourn the
		House without putting any question.
	Sittings in
	Westminster
	Hall.
		10.—(1) On days on which the House shall sit after an
		address has been agreed to in answer to Her Majesty’s Speech
		there shall be a sitting in Westminster Hall—
		(a) on Tuesdays between half‑past nine o’clock and two
		o’clock;
		(b) on Wednesdays beginning at half‑past nine o’clock,
		which shall be suspended from half‑past eleven o’clock
		until half‑past two o’clock and may then continue for
		up to a further two and a half hours; except that if the
		Wednesday immediately follows a periodic
		adjournment of the House of more than two days, the
		sitting shall be between half‑past nine o’clock and two
		o’clock; and
		(c) on Thursdays beginning at half‑past two o’clock and
		continuing for up to three hours,
		and in calculating the periods of two and a half or three hours
		no account shall be taken of any period during which the sitting
		may be suspended owing to a division being called in the
		House or a committee of the whole House.
		(2) Any Member of the House may take part in a sitting in
		Westminster Hall.
		(3) Subject to paragraph (13) below, the business taken at any
		sitting in Westminster Hall shall be such as the Chairman of
		Ways and Means shall appoint and may include oral answers to
		questions under arrangements to be made by him.
		(4) The Chairman of Ways and Means or a Deputy Chairman
		shall take the chair in Westminster Hall as Deputy Speaker; and
		the House may appoint not more than four other members of
		the Chairmen’s Panel to sit in Westminster Hall as Deputy
		Speaker.
		(5) Any member of the Chairmen’s Panel may also take the
		chair at a sitting in Westminster Hall when so requested by the
		Chairman of Ways and Means, with the duties and powers
		conferred on additional Deputy Speakers; and Members so
		appointed shall be addressed by name.
		(6) Any order made or resolution come to at a sitting in
		Westminster Hall (other than a resolution to adjourn) shall be
		reported to the House by the Deputy Speaker and shall be
		deemed to be an order or resolution of the House.
		(7) If a motion be made by a Minister of the Crown that an
		order of the day be proceeded with at a sitting in Westminster
		Hall, the question thereon shall be put forthwith, but such
		motion may be made only with the leave of the House and may
		not be made on a Friday.
		(8) The quorum at a sitting in Westminster Hall shall be three.
		(9) If at a sitting in Westminster Hall the opinion of the
		Deputy Speaker as to the decision of a question (other than a
		question for adjournment) is challenged, that question shall not
		be decided, and the Deputy Speaker shall report to the House
		accordingly; and any such question shall be put forthwith upon
		a motion being made in the House.
		(10) If any business other than a motion for adjournment is
		under consideration at a sitting in Westminster Hall, and not
		fewer than six Members rise in their places and signify their
		objection to further proceedings, that business shall not be
		further proceeded with in Westminster Hall, and the Deputy
		Speaker shall report to the House accordingly, and any order
		under paragraph (7) above relating thereto shall be discharged.
		(11) At the end of each sitting in Westminster Hall, unless a
		question for adjournment has previously been agreed to, the
		Deputy Speaker shall adjourn the sitting without putting any
		question; and proceedings on any business which has been
		entered upon but not disposed of shall lapse.
		(12) The provisions of Standing Orders No. 29 (Powers of
		chair to propose question), No. 36 (Closure of debate), No. 37
		(Majority for closure or for proposal of question), No. 38
		(Procedure on divisions), No. 39 (Voting), No. 40 (Division
		unnecessarily claimed), No. 41 (Quorum), No. 43 (Disorderly
		conduct), No. 44 (Order in debate), No. 45 (Members
		suspended, &c., to withdraw from precincts), No. 45A
		(Suspension of salary of Members suspended) and No. 163
		(Motions to sit in private) shall not apply to sittings in
		Westminster Hall.
		(13) In each Session, the Speaker shall appoint not more than
		six Thursdays on which the business to be taken in
		Westminster Hall should be debates on select committee
		reports chosen by the Liaison Committee.
	Friday sittings.
		11.—(1) Subject to Standing Order No. 12 (House not to sit
		on certain Fridays), the House shall meet on Fridays at half-
		past nine o’clock, and will first proceed with private business,
		petitions, and motions for unopposed returns.
		(2) Standing Orders No. 9 (Sittings of the House) and No. 15
		(Exempted business) shall apply to the sittings on Fridays
		with—
		(a) the omission of paragraph (1) of Standing Order No.
		9; and
		(b) the insertion of references to half-past two o’clock as
		the moment of interruption; and
		(c) the substitution of reference to half-past three o’clock
		for reference to eleven o’clock in relation to
		proceedings on nomination of members of
		departmental select committees.
		(3) In the application of Standing Order No. 17 (Delegated
		legislation (negative procedure)) to the sittings on Fridays
		there shall be substituted references to four o’clock for
		references to half-past eleven o’clock.
		(4) At eleven o’clock the Speaker may interrupt the
		proceedings in order to permit questions to be asked which are
		in his opinion of an urgent character and relate either to matters
		of public importance or to the arrangement of business,
		statements to be made by Ministers, or personal explanations to
		be made by Members.
		(5) If the House is in committee at eleven o’clock, on an
		occasion when the Speaker’s intention to permit such
		questions, statements or explanations has been made known,
		the chairman shall leave the chair without putting any question,
		and report that the committee have made progress and ask
		leave to sit again.
		(6) The House, when it meets on Friday, shall, at its rising,
		stand adjourned until the following Monday without any
		question being put.
	House not to sit
	on certain
	Fridays.
		12.—(1) Unless the House otherwise orders, the House shall
		not sit on any Friday other than those on which private
		Members’ bills have precedence.
		(2) At its rising on the Thursday before a Friday on which the
		House is not sitting the House shall stand adjourned till the
		following Monday without any question being put, unless it
		shall have resolved otherwise.
		(3) Unless the House shall have resolved to adjourn
		otherwise than from the previous Thursday to the following
		Monday, the Fridays on which the House does not sit shall be
		treated as sitting days for the purpose of calculating any period
		under any order of the House and for the purposes of paragraph
		(6) of Standing Order No. 22 (Notices of questions, motions
		and amendments) and of Standing Order No. 64 (Notices of
		amendments, &c., to bills); and on such Fridays—
		(a) notices of questions may be given by Members to the
		Table Office, and
		(b) notices of amendments to bills, new clauses and new
		schedules and of amendments to Lords amendments,
		and notices of motions relating to proceedings on bills
		committed to a public bill committee, may be received
		by the Public Bill Office,
		between eleven o’clock and three o’clock.
	Earlier meeting
	of House in
	certain
	circumstances.
		13.—(1) Whenever the House stands adjourned and it is
		represented to the Speaker by Her Majesty’s Ministers that the
		public interest requires that the House should meet at a time
		earlier than that to which the House stands adjourned, the
		Speaker, if he is satisfied that the public interest does so
		require, may give notice that, being so satisfied, he appoints a
		time for the House to meet, and the House shall accordingly
		meet at the time stated in such notice.
		(2) The government business to be transacted on the day on
		which the House shall so meet shall, subject to the publication
		of notice thereof in the order paper to be circulated on the day
		on which the House shall so meet, be such as the government
		may appoint, but subject as aforesaid the House shall transact
		its business as if it had been duly adjourned to the day on which
		it shall so meet, and any government order of the day and
		government notices of motions that may stand on the order
		book for any day shall be appointed for the day on which the
		House shall so meet.
		(3) In the event of the Speaker being unable to act owing to
		illness or other cause, the Chairman of Ways and Means, or