Supplementary memorandum from the Clerk
Assistant
Role of the Programming Committee in allocating
time in the House or Committee of the whole House (Q 19)
There are a number of examples of resolutions
of the Programming Committee being designed to ensure that politically
important parts of Bills were guaranteed debate in the course
of programmed proceedings in Committee of the whole House or on
Report. The way that this is done is by ensuring that a particular
Clause or new Clause is debated at the beginning of proceedings
on the bill or immediately after a "knife" has fallen.
In November 2001[11],
the Programming Committee on the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security
Bill divided up the time in such a way as to ensure that there
would be opportunity to debate in particular the duration of the
Act and also religious hatred offences.
In May 2003[12],
the Programming Committee on the Criminal Justice Bill ensured
that debates would be held on mandatory life sentences for murder,
on double jeopardy and on right to jury trial.
The prioritising of particular Clauses or new
Clauses in a programme Motion can be done equally by a resolution
of the Programming Committee or by a Motion being tabled by the
Government where the Sessional Order B relating to the Programming
Committee has been disapplied. For either method of organising
the proceedings to work for the benefit of the House, there must
be a degree of engagement between the usual channels and with
other Members interested in the Bill.
February 2004
11 CJ 2001-02, p 206. Back
12
V&P, p 601. Back
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