Section A - Part 1

Sittings of the House and Dates of Session

The House sat on every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and on 5 Fridays during the following periods (all dates inclusive):

18 November 2009 - 16 December 2009

05 January 2010 - 10 February 2010

22 February 2010 - 30 March 2010

06 April 2010 - 08 April 2010

The total number of sitting days was 60. The House sat for 540 hours and 13 minutes, and the average length of the daily sitting (including Fridays) was 7 hours and 50 minutes.

The House sat on the following Fridays: 29 January 2010; 5 & 26 February 2010 and 5 & 12 March 2010

Analysis of the time of the session

Type of Business	Total time spent (hours: minutes)
1	Addresses other than Motions to annul or revoke Statutory Instruments (including debate on Queen's Speech)	37.57
2	Government Bills
	Second Reading debate (Bills committed to a Public Bill Committee)	29.52
	Second Reading debate (Bills committed to a Committee of the Whole House)	26.39
	Committee of the Whole House	38.08
	Consideration (Report stage)	42,04
	Third Reading	9.10
	Lords Amendments	5.49
	Allocation of Time Order (including Programme Motions)	4.18
	Committal and Carry-over Motions	0.00
3	Private Members' Bills
	Motions for the introduction of Ten Minute Rule Bills	3.43
	Second Reading	18.28
	Other stages	5.56
	Private Business three hours before the moment of interruption	7.32
4	Government motions
	European Union Documents	0.14
	Business Motions	3.55
	General	21.52
5	Opposition motions
	Opposition Days (6 days)	36.17
6	Private Members' Motions (substantive)	0.46
7	Adjournment, general and topical debates
	Government debates on motions for the Adjournment	24.13
	Topical Debates	7.43
	Daily (at end of business)	34.54
	Standing Order No. 24 debate	0
	Last day before Recesses	5.37
Type of Business	Total time spent (hours: minutes)
8	Estimates	11.10
9	Money Resolutions	1.53
10	Ways and Means Resolutions (including Budget Debate)	25.22
11	Statutory Instruments
	Affirmative Statutory Instruments	16.31
	Motions to annul or revoke Statutory Instruments	0.00
12	Oral Questions	46.52
	Topical Questions	12.19
	Urgent Questions	5.03
	Statements	24.52
	Business statements	11.57
	SO No 24 Applications	0.00
	Points of Order and Speaker's Rulings	5.22
	Presentation of Public Petitions	3.04
	Daily Prayers	5.38
	Miscellaneous (including suspensions of the proceedings of the House)	5.03
Sessional Total	540.13
Note:	The time taken up by Divisions is included with the class of business upon which the divisions were called.

Section A - Part 2

Parliamentary Questions

Statistics of Parliamentary Questions are available in two forms. The figures for each, which for various reasons (mainly owing to methods of counting and recording) are not exactly comparable, are as follows:

Questions appearing on the Order Paper calculated by the Journal Office

Appearing on the Order Paper for Oral Answer	1,924
Put down for priority Written answer	4.307
Put down for non-priority Written Answer	21,160
Total	27,391

Of which 962 received an oral answer in the House.

Questions appearing in Hansard, and indexed in the Parliamentary Information Management Services (PIMS)

Oral replies (including supplementaries)* Oral replies (excluding supplementaries)*	2,685 942
Written replies	23,916
Total*	26,601

The total number of urgent questions (excluding Business Questions) was 12

The total number of supplementary questions (excluding tabled questions) was 1743

*Figures provided for Oral questions do not include the 448 Topical Questions or Questions about the Prime Minister's Official Engagements which did not receive a separate printed answer in the Official Report (Hansard). Topical questions or questions on the Prime Minister's Official Engagements which were asked at the beginning of the question time session will have received a printed answer and are included in the figures above.

Section A - Part 3

Opposition Days

Standing Order No 14(2), (3) provides that 20 days* shall be allotted in each session for proceedings on opposition business. 17 of these are allocated to the main opposition party (Conservative) and 3 to the other opposition parties.

* 2009-10 was a short parliamentary session, due to the General Election on 6 May 2010, therefore there were only 6 days allotted to opposition business.

Date	Day No.	Subject of Debate
08.12.09	1	1)	Disability Benefits for the Elderly
08.12.09	1	2)	Local Government Finance Settlement and Council Tax
13.01.10	2	1)	Education, Skills and Training Opportunities for young people in the recession
13.01.10	2	2)	Energy Security
27.01.10	3	1)	Dementia Services and Care of the Elderly
27.01.10	3	2)	Out of hours Care
01.03.10	4 (1/2 day)	1)	The Government's record on defence
09.03.10	5	1)	Healthcare in London
16.03.10	6	1)	The Government's Handling of Equitable Life
16.03.10	6	2)	Access to Higher Education

Section A - Part 4

Topical Debates

Standing Order No 24A provides for one and a half hours for the House to consider a specific matter of regional, national or international importance. The following debates took place on Thursdays during the 2009-10 Session. Topics for debate were selected by the Leader of the House the preceding Monday from suggestions made by Members of the House of Commons.

Date	Subject of Debate
14.01.10	Afghanistan
21.01.10	Food Industry Competitiveness
28.01.10	Holocaust Memorial Day
11.03.10	International Women's Day

Section A - Part 5

Estimates Days

Standing Order No 54 provides that three days shall be allotted during each session for the consideration of Estimates (see Factsheet No P6). As 2009-10 was a short session only two days were allotted. The Subjects are set down by resolution of the Liaison Committee.

Date	No. of Allotted Day	Principal Subjects
10.12.09	1st (part 1)	Students and Universities
10.12.09	1st (part 2)	Central and local government
10.03.10	2nd (part 1)	Alcohol
10.03.10	2nd (part 2)	Road users (taxes and charges)

Section A - Part 6

Government Substantive Motions

Date	Subject
01.12.09	Fisheries
03.12.09	European Affairs
22.02.10	Reform of the House of Commons Committee Report, HC 111, Rebuilding the House
15.03.10	Defence in the world
18.03.10	The Intelligence and Security Committee Annual Report

Section A - Part 7

Standing Order No 24

Standing Order No 24 allows Members to suggest that a specific and important matter should have urgent consideration and that an emergency debate be held upon it. It is for the Speaker to decide whether the matter is sufficiently specific, important and urgent to warrant giving it precedence, and among other things to have regard to the probability of the matter being brought before the House by other means; the Chair in general gives leave very seldom. During the 2009-2010 Session, there were 0 applications.

Section A - Part 8

Divisions

The total number of divisions during the Session was 135

Section A - Part 9

Early Day Motions

The total number of Early Day Motions tabled during the Session was 1,248, of which 15 were prayers for the annulment of Statutory Instruments. Factsheet P3 on Early Day Motions is available from the House of Commons Information Office.