APPENDIX 5 (Part 2)
PRODUCTION OF
IN -HOUSE
DOCUMENTS DURING
"PING-PONG"
What follows is a description of the process
of production for a bill first introduced in the Commons on occasions
when Lords Amendments are considered too quickly to permit the
production of documents by The Stationery Office overnight in
the normal way for House papers. The Public Bill Offices of the
two Houses share a common computer drive to facilitate the electronic
transfer of documents between them.
— The process starts when the Lords
place the first set of Lords Amendments on the shared drive. If
the bill is contentious and the outcome of divisions in the Lords
cannot be predicted, the final version of the Lords Amendments
cannot be placed on the shared drive until after the Lords have
finished considering the bill.
— Once the Lords Amendments are on
the shared drive, it takes approximately fifteen minutes to create
a House of Commons paper from the document and to e-mail it to
the Print Services unit in the Vote Office for production as hard
copy; the time taken by Print Services to publish the paper and
deliver it to the main building depends on its size.
— While the Lords Amendment paper is
being printed:
— The Government tables its Propositions
as to how the Lords Amendments are to be dealt with (agreed to,
disagreed to, amended etc). This usually occurs about 45 minutes
after the Public Bill Office has sent the Lords Amendments to
Print Services. It takes approximately 15 minutes or less for
the Public Bill Office to produce the "Emergency Paper"
which is then emailed to Print Services. This paper is usually
smaller in size than the Lords Amendment Paper and is usually
ready for release at the same time.
— The "House copy" of
the bill[22]
is physically marked up in the Lords with the Amendments prior
to its return: the time taken for this will depend on the number
and complexity of amendments and whether or not the Lords Public
Bill Office has been able to mark up the bill in advance (the
Lords are less likely to be able to do this than the Commons because
the fate of amendments in the Lords is often unpredictable).
— The marked-up House copy of the
bill is brought to the Commons. On receipt, it is compared to
the Lords Amendments already sent to Print Services to ensure
that the two are identical. Once both papers are ready, the Vote
Office releases the papers and the Annunciators show a message
that papers are available and give a time for the House to resume.
— The Lords Amendments and the Government
Propositions are then debated in the Commons. During this time,
the "Paper Back" to the Lords is produced by the Commons
Public Bill Office. This is a complicated document, including
elements of the Government Propositions, Reasons for disagreeing
to Lords Amendments (which are provided by Parliamentary Counsel)
and the original Lords Amendment Paper. Once it is completed,
the House Bill is marked up and the electronic version of the
"Paper Back" is put on the shared drive, with a "health
warning" if there is any uncertainty of the outcome of divisions.
Finally, the message to accompany the House Bill is drafted.
— A Table Clerk will take the marked-up
House copy of the bill to the Lords, together with a hard copy
of the "Paper Back" and the Message to the Lords setting
out the decisions of the Commons on the Lords Amendments.
— If the Lords return the Bill and
Amendments with further Proposals, these are again placed on the
shared drive and the process continues as above.
22 The interleaved copy that is placed on the Table
of the House during debate.
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