PRIVATE MEMBERS BALLOT BILL

The ballot takes place on the Second Thursday after the start of the Parliamentary Session (the Queen’s speech mark’s the start of the Session).

Twenty names are drawn from a box (on average more than two thirds of the total number of MPs enter the ballot each year) and the order in which they are drawn determines the order in which the subsequent Private Member’s Bills will be debated.

The MPs then have roughly three weeks to decide what the name and nature of their Private Member’s Bill (PMB) will be. The titles are of the Bill are then read out (or presented – 1st Reading) in the House of Commons.