Tabling amendments to bills Tabling amendments to Bills
Tabling amendments to bills At which stages can I table amendments to bills? Amendments to bills can be tabled at three different stages of a bill s progress through Parliament: after the bill has had its second reading and been committed to a committee, either a Committee of the whole House or, more usually, a public bill committee at report (or consideration) stage, after the bill has been reported from a committee when a bill has been amended by the Lords and returned to the Commons for consideration of Lords amendments. This guide deals with tabling amendments at the first two stages. Members wishing to table amendments to Lords amendments (or to table reasoned amendments at Second or Third Reading) are advised to contact the Public Bill Office directly on 020 7219 3251/6758/3258 or visit the Office which is on the third floor of the main building, directly above the Chamber, and may be reached from the lifts by the Table Office or behind the letterboard in Members Lobby. Where do I go to table amendments? Amendments can be handed in immediately after a bill has had its second reading, but must be given to the Clerks at the Table in the Chamber. After the day of second reading, Members should come to the Public Bill Office: when the House is sitting, between 9.30am (10.00am Mondays) and the rise of the House on non-sitting Fridays between 11.00am and 3.00pm. During recesses, signed amendments may be sent in by post to the Public Bill Office or handed in to the Duty Clerk (who will be based in the Journal Office, also on the third floor, between 10.00am and 5.00pm on every recess day which is not a weekend or Bank Holiday). They will not normally be printed, however, until the end of the recess.
The Public Bill Office is always open on the last working day of a recess between 9.30am and 4.30pm. Can I ask someone else to table my amendments for me? Yes. Amendments can be tabled: by a Member handing them in to one of the clerks in the Public Bill Office (or by another Member doing so on their behalf ) by a Member signing the amendments and sending them in by post, or asking someone else to hand them in, to the Public Bill Office by an introduced assistant this is a member of an MP s staff brought into the office by the MP and introduced to the clerks as someone acting on their behalf for that Parliamentary Session. Can I table amendments by email or fax? No, they need to be tabled in hard copy. This can be typed or handwritten. It must include: the name of the bill the amendments are tabled to the names of the Members tabling the amendments and the order in which their names should appear. What is the deadline for tabling amendments? Adequate notice of all amendments, new clauses and new schedules should be given. For public bill committees, this is three working days, for example in a normal sitting week by the rise of the House on Monday for a Thursday meeting and by the rise of the House on Thursday for a Tuesday meeting. Amendments not submitted within this period are indicated on the amendment paper by stars and are not normally selected for debate by the Committee Chair. The deadline for amendments for Committees of the whole House and for Bills at report stage is two sitting days before the bill is to be considered, for example by the rise of the House on Monday if the debate is to take place on a Wednesday.
How do I set out my amendments? Amendments to the text of a bill in Committee should make clear which part of the bill they are addressing in the following order clause, page, line. Can I add an explanatory statement? Yes. A Member tabling an amendment to a bill in Public Bill Committee may accompany that amendment with an explanatory statement of not more than 50 words. This should describe the intended effect of the amendment but must not be an argument for its adoption. The explanatory statement is then printed in italics immediately following the amendment to which it relates. Examples of committee stage amendments Insertions Clause 3, page 2, line 27, after description, insert who shall not be connected. Clause 3, page 2, line 30, at end insert (d) must be signed by at least two persons.. Clause 60, page 49, line 41, at end add (16)A person who breaches a disqualification under this section commits an offence.. [Note: use add, instead of insert, only at end of clauses/ schedules.] Deletion Clause 3, page 3, line 2, leave out or dog. Clause 5, page 4, line 16, leave out subsection (17). Clause 34, page 17, line 7, leave out from an to assessment in line 17. [Note: both the words an and assessment will stay in the bill; this form is used when deleting seven or more words.] Insertion and deletion Clause 22, page 16, line 6, leave out alleges and insert demonstrates.
Tabling amendments to bills New Clauses (NCs) and New Schedules (NSs) Report to Parliament Mrs Ruth Harvey To move the following Clause: (1) The Agency must prepare an annual report which the Secretary of State shall lay before Parliament. (2) The annual report must include information on the Agency s progress against the objectives set out in section 1 of this Act.. [Note: it is not possible to state where the new clause or schedule will go in the bill.] What happens next? Amendments tabled will be printed on the next working day on blue paper and appear in the vote bundle and be put up on the parliamentary website. The day before the start of the committee stage a blue marshalled amendment paper, in which the amendments are set out in the order in which they relate to the bill, is produced. A white marshalled amendment paper is published on each day the committee sits. On the day before a committee meeting, the Chair makes the selection of amendments. Amendments might be considered to be out of order, or might not be selected, because they: were not tabled within the deadline do not make sense as currently drafted, or would wreck all or part of the bill have been tabled to the wrong part of the bill, or are very vague are outside the scope of the bill, or of the clause or schedule they are seeking to amend would involve expenditure not authorised by a money resolution. Selection is wholly at the discretion of the Chair and should not be questioned in debate. To ensure that debate in committee is focused and does not repeat itself, related amendments will be grouped together. The Member who tabled the first amendment in each group
will be called to move their amendment, but Members who tabled ones grouped with it can speak in the subsequent debate. Those Members with amendments later in the group can ask the Chair for a separate division on their amendment which will take place when that point in the Bill is reached. The Chair s selection list (showing which amendments have been selected for debate and how they have been grouped) will normally be emailed by the clerk to Members who have asked to receive it on the afternoon before a committee meeting. Extract from a selection list Clause 4 14 + 56 + 16 to 18 + NC 4 In this case the Member who tabled amendment 14 will be called first, but the Members who tabled amendments 56, 16 to 18 and New Clause 4 should also speak to their amendments in the same debate. The selection process is repeated for each day the committee meets. When the amendments grouped for debate under a clause or schedule have been discussed, the Committee may then debate whether or not the relevant clause or schedule should remain in the bill (stand part), and this may also be voted on. This provides an opportunity to debate parts of the existing text that were not the subject of amendment. Committee of the whole House Some bills are considered in a Committee of the whole House (ie in the Chamber). The process is the same but the deadline for amendments is two sitting days and the selection and grouping is decided by the Chairman of Ways and Means. Report stage Once the bill has been reported by the committee to the House, Members may table amendments for the report stage.
The procedure is much the same as for committee stage but: if the bill has been amended in committee a new print will be produced to reflect these changes (called the As Amended in Committee version) the notice period for amendments at report stage is two working days. So amendments for a report stage on a Wednesday should be tabled by the rise of the House on the preceding Monday. Amendments at report stage should be styled page, line, clause, as in the examples below because, unlike in public bill committee, at report stage the House is considering the bill as a whole, rather than going through it clause by clause. Examples of report stage amendments Page 1, line 16 [Clause 1], leave out small-calibre and insert permitted. Page 3, line 43 [Clause 7], after (c), insert a component part of. The selection criteria at report stage are generally stricter: in particular, amendments that have been debated fully at committee stage will not usually be selected at report stage unless they are of first-class importance. The selection and grouping is decided by the Speaker. General tips make sure the correct version of the bill is being used if it is report stage there will usually be an As Amended in Committee version, with different line and page references amendments to leave out a clause will not be selected at committee stage (although Members may table them to indicate that they want a clause stand part debate), but they may be at report stage amendments to amend the title of a clause or part heading will not be selected the text of amendments should refer to sections and the Act rather than clauses or the bill (e.g. pursuant to section 43, in this Act ) before drafting an amendment it is often helpful to find
another part of the bill in question that achieves a similar purpose and model the amendment upon it care should be taken to ensure that any language used in an amendment is already defined in law, or it may be necessary to provide a definition (e.g. in this section cruelty means... ) amendments may require consequential or paving amendments to make them effective, (e.g. an amendment to leave out subsection (4), may require other amendments to remove references to subsection (4) elsewhere in the clause or bill) in some cases, the primary purpose of a bill is to amend existing pieces of legislation (e.g. previous Criminal Justice Acts), in which case the amendments should address those Acts and Members should familiarise themselves with their provisions Lexis-Nexis Butterworths is a searchable database of UK legislation and can be accessed via the Library intranet website. Structure of bills Clauses: 1 This is a clause (1) This is a subsection (a) this is a paragraph; (i) this is a sub-paragraph. Schedules: This is a Schedule 1 This is a paragraph. (1) This is a sub-paragraph (a) this is a sub-sub-paragraph. Getting advice on procedure or help with wording Further information about any aspect of amendments or legislation in general, can be obtained from any of the clerks in the Public Bill Office: 020 7219 3251/6758/3258 House of Commons London SW1A 0AA www.parliament.uk