House of Commons

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

	Bills which are
	prima facie
	hybrid.
		61.—(1) Where a public bill (not being a bill to confirm a
		provisional order or certificate) is ordered to be read a second
		time on a future day, and it appears that the standing orders
		relating to private business may be applicable to the bill, the
		Examiners of Petitions for Private Bills shall be ordered to
		examine the bill and they shall proceed and report with all
		convenient speed whether the said standing orders are
		applicable thereto. If they find that the standing orders are
		applicable, they shall further report whether they have been
		complied with.
		(2) If the Examiners report that any standing order applicable
		to the bill has not been complied with, and the Standing Orders
		Committee report that such standing order ought not to be
		dispensed with, the order of the day relating to the bill shall be
		discharged.
	Amendment on
	second or third
	reading.
		62.—(1) If on an amendment to the question ‘That a bill be
		now read a second time (or the third time)’ it is decided that the
		word ‘now’ stand part of the question, the Speaker shall
		forthwith declare the bill to be read a second or the third time
		as the case may be.
		(2) When the question has been proposed ‘That a bill be now
		read a second time (or the third time)’ and the question on any
		amendment to leave out all the words after ‘That’ and insert
		other words has passed in the negative, the main question shall
		be put forthwith.
	Committal of
	bills not subject
	to a programme
	order.
		63.—(1) When a public bill (other than a Consolidated Fund
		or an Appropriation Bill, or a tax law rewrite bill, or a bill for
		confirming a provisional order) has been read a second time, it
		shall stand committed to a public bill committee unless the
		House otherwise orders.
		(2) A motion—
		(a) to commit a bill to a committee of the whole House or
		to a select committee, or a motion that it is expedient
		that a bill be committed to a joint committee of Lords
		and Commons; or
		(b) to give a public bill committee to which a bill has been
		committed under this order power to send for persons,
		papers and records,
		may be made by any Member and if made immediately after
		the bill has been read a second time shall not require notice,
		and, though opposed, may be decided after the expiration of the
		time for opposed business, and the question thereon shall be
		put forthwith.
		(3) A motion to commit a bill to a public bill committee in
		respect of some of its provisions and to a committee of the
		whole House in respect of other provisions may be made by the
		Member in charge of the bill and, if made immediately after the
		bill has been read a second time, shall not require notice, and
		may, though opposed, be decided after the expiration of the
		time for opposed business. If such a motion is opposed, the
		Speaker after permitting, if he thinks fit, a brief explanatory
		statement from the Member who makes and from a Member
		who opposes the motion shall, without permitting any further
		debate, put the question thereon.
		(4) If the question on a motion made under paragraph (2) or
		paragraph (3) of this order is negatived, the Speaker shall
		forthwith declare that the bill stands committed to a public bill
		committee.
	Notices of
	amendments,
	&c., to bills.
		64. Whenever the House is adjourned for more than one day,
		notices of amendments to bills, new clauses or new schedules
		or of amendments to Lords amendments received in the Public
		Bill Office at any time not later than half‑past four o’clock on
		the last day on which the House is not sitting (excluding any
		Saturday, Sunday, bank holiday or public holiday in England)
		may be accepted as if the House were sitting.
	Amendments in
	committee.
		65. All committees to which bills may be committed or
		referred for consideration on report shall have power to make
		such amendments therein as they shall think fit, provided they
		be relevant to the subject matter of the bill: but if any such
		amendments shall not be within the long title of the bill, they
		shall amend the long title accordingly, and report the same
		specially to the House.
	Committee of
	whole House on
	bill.
		66. Whenever an order of the day is read for the House to
		resolve itself into a committee on a bill, the Speaker shall leave
		the chair without putting any question, and the House shall
		thereupon resolve itself into such committee, unless notice of
		an instruction to such committee has been given, when such
		instruction shall be first disposed of, or unless the committee is
		discharged in pursuance of paragraph (8) of Standing Order
		No. 60 (Tax law rewrite bills).
	Postponement of
	preamble.
		67. In a committee on a bill any preamble shall stand
		postponed until after the consideration of the clauses and of any
		schedules.
	Debate on clause
	or schedule
	standing part.
		68. If, during the consideration of a bill in a committee of the
		whole House, the chairman is of opinion that the principle of a
		clause or schedule and any matters arising thereon have been
		adequately discussed in the course of debate on the
		amendments proposed thereto, he may, after the last
		amendment to be selected has been disposed of, state that he is
		of this opinion and shall then forthwith put the question ‘That
		the clause (or, the clause, as amended) stand part of the bill’ or
		‘That this schedule (or this schedule, as amended) be the
		schedule to the bill’, as the case may be.
	Procedure on
	offer of new
	clause.
		69. When a Member has brought up a clause or schedule in
		committee on a bill or on consideration of a bill on report, it
		shall be read the first time without any question being put.
	When chairman
	leaves chair
	without question
	put.
		70. When the chairman of a committee of the whole House
		has been ordered to make a report to the House, he shall leave
		the chair without putting any question. Every such report shall
		be brought up without any question being put.
	Report of bill
	from committee
	of whole House.
		71. At the close of the proceedings of a committee of the
		whole House on a bill, the chairman shall report the bill
		forthwith to the House, and when amendments shall have been
		made thereto, a day shall be appointed for taking the bill, as
		amended, into consideration, unless the House shall order it to
		be taken into consideration forthwith.
	Consideration of
	bill as amended
	in committee of
	whole House.
		72. When the order of the day for the consideration of a bill,
		as amended in a committee of the whole House, has been read,
		the House shall proceed to consider the same without question
		put, unless the Member in charge thereof nominates a future
		day for its consideration or a motion shall be made to
		re‑commit the bill in whole or in part.
	Report of bills
	committed to
	public bill
	committees.
		73. Save as provided in Standing Order No. 92
		(Consideration on report of certain bills by a general
		committee) every bill committed to and reported from a public
		bill committee, whether amended or not, shall be considered on
		report by the House, and the provisions of Standing Order No.
		72 (Consideration of bill as amended in committee of whole
		House) shall apply to such consideration.
	Re-committal of
	bill.
		74. If a motion to re‑commit a bill as a whole be made, the
		Speaker shall permit a brief explanatory statement of the
		reasons for such re‑committal from the Member who makes,
		and a brief statement from a Member who opposes, any such
		motion, and shall then put the question thereon.
	Amendments on
	report.
		75. Upon the consideration of a bill on report no amendment
		which could not have been proposed in committee without an
		instruction from the House may be proposed unless it has been
		authorised by a resolution of the House.
	Debate on bill
	reported from
	public bill
	committee.
		76. When a bill has been committed to a public bill
		committee, or has been so committed in respect of some of its
		provisions, then, on consideration on report of the bill or such
		of its provisions as were so committed, the rule against
		speaking more than once shall not apply to the Member in
		charge of the bill or to the mover of any amendment or new
		clause or schedule in respect of that amendment or clause or
		schedule.
	Third reading.
		77. No amendments, not being merely verbal, shall be made
		to any bill on the third reading.
	Lords
	amendments.
		78.—(1) Lords amendments to public bills and Lords
		reasons shall be appointed to be considered on a future day,
		unless the House shall order them to be considered forthwith,
		and the provisions of Standing Order No. 57A (Bills brought
		from the Lords) shall apply to the appointment of consideration
		and the printing of Lords amendments and reasons as they
		apply to the appointment of second reading and the printing of
		bills brought from the House of Lords.
		(2) When the order of the day for the consideration of Lords
		amendments to a public bill or Lords reasons has been read, the
		House shall proceed to consider the same without question put,
		unless the Member in charge thereof nominates a future day for
		their consideration.
		(3) If the Speaker is satisfied that a Lords amendment
		imposes a charge upon the public revenue such as is required
		to be authorised by resolution of the House under Standing
		Order No. 49 (Certain proceedings relating to public money)
		and that such charge has not been so authorised, on reaching
		that amendment, the Speaker shall declare that he is so satisfied
		and the amendment shall be deemed to have been disagreed to
		and shall be so recorded in the Journal.
	Pecuniary
	penalties.
		79.With respect to any bill brought to this House from the
		House of Lords, or returned by the House of Lords to this
		House, with amendments, whereby any pecuniary penalty,
		forfeiture, or fee shall be authorised, imposed, appropriated,
		regulated, varied, or extinguished, this House will not insist on
		its ancient and undoubted privileges in the following cases:
		(1) when the object of such pecuniary penalty or
		forfeiture is to secure the execution of the Act, or the
		punishment or prevention of offences;
		(2) where such fees are imposed in respect of benefit
		taken or service rendered under the Act, and in order to
		the execution of the Act, and are not made payable into
		the Consolidated Fund, or in aid of the public revenue,
		and do not form the ground of public accounting by the
		parties receiving the same, either in respect of deficit or
		surplus;
		(3) when such bill shall be a private bill for a local or
		personal Act.
	Privilege (bills
	brought from the
	Lords).
		80. The House may proceed with any public bill brought
		from the Lords except a bill of aids and supplies, provided
		that—
		(a) it is so framed that no charge upon the people or upon
		public funds, unless it be such a charge as is defined in
		Standing Order No. 79 (Pecuniary penalties), is
		imposed or altered; and
		(b) in the case of a bill which, if it were not so framed,
		would have as its main object the imposition or
		alteration of such a charge, a Minister of the Crown has
		informed the Clerk at the Table of his intention to take
		charge of it.
	Carry-over of
	bills.
		80A.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this order,
		a Minister of the Crown may give notice of a motion (a
		‘carry‑over motion’) that proceedings on a public bill not
		completed before the end of the Session shall be resumed in the
		next Session of Parliament; and the Speaker shall put any
		question necessary to dispose of proceedings on such a
		motion—
		(a) forthwith if the motion is made on the day the bill is
		read a second time; or
		(b) not more than one and a half hours after the
		commencement of proceedings on the motion if the
		motion is made at any other time.
		(2) A carry‑over motion may be proceeded with, though
		opposed, after the moment of interruption.
		(3) A carry‑over motion shall not be made in respect of more
		than one bill.
		(4) A carry‑over motion shall not be made in respect of a bill
		carried over from a previous Session of Parliament.
		(5) A carry over motion may be made only in respect of a bill
		presented by a Minister of the Crown.
		(6) The provisions of this order shall not apply to a carry-over
		motion made in respect of a bill brought from the Lords.
		(7) Paragraphs (8) to (11) of this order shall apply to any bill
		ordered to be carried over to the next Session of Parliament in
		pursuance of a carry‑over motion.
		(8) If proceedings in committee on the bill are begun but not
		completed before the end of the first Session, the chairman
		shall report the bill to the House as so far amended and the bill
		and any evidence received by the committee shall be ordered to
		lie upon the Table.