House of Commons Public Bill Committee Proceedings

House of Commons

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

Division

unnecessarily

claimed.

40. The Speaker or the chairman may, after the lapse of two

minutes, if in his opinion the division is unnecessarily claimed,

take the vote of the House, or committee, by calling upon the

Members who support, and who challenge, his decision,

successively to rise in their places; and he shall thereupon, as

he thinks fit, either declare the determination of the House or

committee, or name tellers for a division.

Quorum.

41.—(1) If it should appear that fewer than forty Members

(including the occupant of the chair and the tellers) have taken

part in a division, the business under consideration shall stand

over until the next sitting of the House and the next business

shall be taken.

(2) The House shall not be counted at any time.

Deferred

divisions.

41A.—(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), Standing

Order No. 38 (Procedure on divisions) shall not apply if, after

the time for the interruption of business, the opinion of the

Speaker as to the decision on a question is challenged in respect

of any question.

(2) Standing Order No. 38 (Procedure on divisions) shall

apply (and this order shall not apply) to questions—

(a) on motions or amendments in the course of

proceedings on bills or allocating time to or

programming such proceedings;

(b) on motions which may be made without notice;

(c) on motions to be disposed of immediately following

the disposal of amendments proposed thereto, and on

such amendments;

(d) on motions made under—

(i) paragraph (2) of Standing Order No. 15

(Exempted business);

(ii) paragraph (3) of Standing Order No. 51 (Ways

and means motions);

(iii) sub-paragraph (1)(a) of Standing Order No. 52

(Money resolutions and ways and means resolutions

in connection with bills);

(iv) paragraph (5) of Standing Order No. 54

(Consideration of estimates); and

(v) paragraph (1) of Standing Order No. 55

(Questions on voting of estimates, &c); and

(e) on motions made under paragraph (3) below or to

which an order made under that paragraph applies.

(3) After the moment of interruption and the conclusion of

proceedings under any other Standing Order which fall to be

taken immediately after it, a Minister of the Crown may make

a motion to the effect that this order shall not apply to questions

on any specified motions; such motion may be proceeded with,

though opposed, and the question thereon shall be put

forthwith.

(4) If the opinion of the Speaker is challenged under

paragraph (1) of this order, he shall defer the division until half-

past twelve o’clock on the next Wednesday on which the

House shall sit.

(5) On any Wednesday to which a division has been deferred

under paragraph (4) above—

(a) Members may record their votes on the question under

arrangements made by the Speaker;

(b) votes may be recorded for one and a half hours after

half-past twelve o’clock, no account being taken of any

period during which the House or committee proceeds

to a division; and

(c) the Speaker, or the chairman, shall announce the result

of the deferred division as soon as may be after the

expiry of the period mentioned in sub-paragraph (b)

above.

Order in the House

Irrelevance or

repetition.

42. The Speaker, or the chairman, after having called the

attention of the House, or of the committee, to the conduct of a

Member who persists in irrelevance, or tedious repetition either

of his own arguments or of the arguments used by other

Members in debate, may direct him to discontinue his speech.

Sub judice.

42A. The Speaker, or the chairman, may direct any Member

who breaches the terms of the sub judice resolution of the

House to resume his seat.

Disorderly

conduct.

43. The Speaker, or the chairman, shall order any Member or

Members whose conduct is grossly disorderly to withdraw

immediately from the House during the remainder of that day’s

sitting; and the Serjeant at Arms shall act on such orders as he

may receive from the chair in pursuance of this order. But if on

any occasion the Speaker, or the chairman, deems that his

powers under the previous provisions of this order are

inadequate, he may name such Member or Members, in which

event the same procedure shall be followed as is prescribed by

Standing Order No. 44 (Order in debate).

Order in debate.

44.—(1) Whenever a Member shall have been named by the

Speaker, or by the chairman, immediately after the commission

of the offence of disregarding the authority of the chair, or of

persistently and wilfully obstructing the business of the House

by abusing the rules of the House or otherwise, then if the

offence has been committed by such Member in the House, the

Speaker shall forthwith put the question, on a motion being

made, ‘That such Member be suspended from the service of the

House’; and if the offence has been committed in a committee

of the whole House, the chairman shall forthwith suspend the

proceedings of the committee and report the circumstances to

the House; and the Speaker shall on a motion being made

forthwith put the same question as if the offence had been

committed in the House itself.

Proceedings in pursuance of this paragraph, though opposed,

may be decided after the expiration of the time for opposed

business.

(2) If any Member be suspended under paragraph (1) of this

order, his suspension on the first occasion shall continue for

five sitting days, and on the second occasion for twenty sitting

days, including in either case the day on which he was

suspended, but, on any subsequent occasion, until the House

shall resolve that the suspension of such Member do terminate.

(3) Not more than one Member shall be named at the same

time, unless two or more Members, present together, have

jointly disregarded the authority of the chair.

(4) If a Member, or two or more Members acting jointly, who

have been suspended under this order from the service of the

House, shall refuse to obey the direction of the Speaker, when

severally summoned under the Speaker’s orders by the

Serjeant at Arms to obey such direction, the Speaker shall call

the attention of the House to the fact that recourse to force is

necessary in order to compel obedience to his direction, and the

Member or Members named by him as having refused to obey

his direction shall thereupon and without any further question

being put be suspended from the service of the House during

the remainder of the session.

(5) Nothing in this order shall be taken to deprive the House

of the power of proceeding against any Member according to

ancient usages.

Members

suspended, &c.,

to withdraw from

precincts.

45.—(1) Members who are ordered to withdraw under

Standing Order No. 43 (Disorderly conduct) or who are

suspended from the service of the House shall forthwith

withdraw from the precincts of the House.

(2) Suspension from the service of the House shall not

exempt the Member so suspended from serving on any

committee for the consideration of a private bill to which he

may have been appointed before the suspension.

Suspension of

salary of

Members

suspended.

45A. The salary of a Member suspended from the service of

the House shall be withheld for the duration of his suspension.

Power of the

Speaker to

adjourn House or

suspend sitting.

46. In case of grave disorder arising in the House the Speaker

may, if he thinks it necessary to do so, adjourn the House

without putting any question, or suspend the sitting for a time

to be named by him.

Short speeches.

47.—(1) The Speaker may announce at or before the

commencement of proceedings on any motion or order of the

day relating to public business that he intends to call Members

to speak in the debate thereon, or at certain times during that

debate, for no longer than any period he may specify (which

shall not be less than eight minutes), and whenever the Speaker

has made such an announcement he shall, subject to paragraph

(2), direct any Member (other than a Minister of the Crown, a

Member speaking on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition, or

not more than one Member nominated by the leader of the

second largest opposition party) who has spoken for that period

to resume his seat forthwith.

(2) In relation to any speech, the Speaker shall add to any

period specified in paragraph (1) of this order—

(a) one minute if one intervention is accepted, plus the

time taken by that intervention;

(b) two minutes if two or more interventions are accepted,

plus the time taken by the first two such interventions.

(3) The Speaker may call Members between certain hours to

speak for a specified maximum time (not being less than three

minutes) and during this time the reference to eight minutes in

paragraph (1) and the provisions of paragraph (2) shall not

apply.

Public Money

Recommendation

from Crown

required on

application

relating to public

money.

48.This House will receive no petition for any sum relating

to public service or proceed upon any motion for a grant or

charge upon the public revenue, whether payable out of the

Consolidated Fund or the National Loans Fund or out of money

to be provided by Parliament, or for releasing or compounding

any sum of money owing to the Crown, unless recommended

from the Crown.

Certain

proceedings

relating to public

money.

49. Any charge upon the public revenue whether payable out

of the Consolidated Fund or the National Loans Fund or out of

money to be provided by Parliament including any provision

for releasing or compounding any sum of money owing to the

Crown shall be authorised by resolution of the House.

Procedure upon

bills whose main

object is to create

a charge upon the

public revenue.

50.—(1) A bill (other than a bill which is required to be

brought in upon a ways and means resolution) the main object

of which is the creation of a public charge may either be

presented, or brought in upon an order of the House, by a

Minister of the Crown, and, in the case of a bill so presented or

brought in, the creation of the charge shall not require to be

authorised by a resolution of the House until the bill has been

read a second time, and after the charge has been so authorised

the bill shall be proceeded with in the same manner as a bill

which involves a charge that is subsidiary to its main purpose.

(2) The provisions of paragraph (1) of this order shall apply

to any bill brought from the Lords, of which a Minister of the

Crown has informed the Clerks at the Table of his intention to

take charge.

Ways and means

motions.

51.—(1) A ways and means motion may be made in the

House without notice on any day as soon as an address has been

agreed to in answer to Her Majesty’s Speech.

(2) A Minister of the Crown may without notice make a

motion for giving provisional statutory effect to any proposals

in pursuance of section 5 of the Provisional Collection of Taxes

Act 1968; and the question on such a motion shall be put

forthwith.

(3) When the question has been decided on the first of several

motions upon which a bill is to be brought in for imposing,

renewing, varying or repealing any charge upon the people, the

question on each such further motion shall be put forthwith;

and proceedings in pursuance of this paragraph, though

opposed, may be decided after the expiration of the time for

opposed business.