WHEN PRIVATE MEMBERS BILLS ARE DEBATED

According to the rules of the House of Commons (Standing Orders), Private Member’s Bills have precedence over Government Bills on 13 Fridays throughout the Parliamentary Session. The First Seven of these Fridays are the only days on which 2nd Readings (in many ways the most important stage in the Commons – an opportunity for a full debate on the issues) have priority.

On the subsequent Fridays, the order in which Private Members Bills are debated is dependent on what stage the Bill is at. The House has to give precedence to debating Bills who have are at stages further than 2nd Reading, so for example they may have already passed to the House of Lords, or be at Committee Stage or Third Reading. Only when these have been heard can Bills at 2nd Reading be debated.

The twenty names drawn from the Ballot will have priority of debate over all other Private Members Bills (10 Minute Rule Bills and Presentation Bills). The higher up the MPs name is placed in the draw, the more likely his or her Bill is to receive a full debate, and thus potentially the higher its chance of becoming law.

When a 10 Minute Rule Bill is introduced, the Member in charge of the Bill is given ten minutes to speak in favour of the Bill. If it is opposed, and any Member can do so, then one Opposing Member speaks for 10 minutes against the Bill. The Speaker may then have to call a division or vote to let the House decide whether the Bill can go forward to Second Reading.

A Presentation Bill cannot be supported by a speech from the Member when it is introduced to the House of Commons. The title is simply read out and the Bill is published. It then joins behind the long queue of Ballot Bills and Ten Minute Rule Bills, awaiting a possibility to be debated.

Increasingly there are time-limits on backbench contributions to most debates in Government time, and the Government often puts forward a Guillotine motion, which acts as a further restraint on the length of time available to debate an issue.

These measures do not apply with Private Members Bills. The debates at 2nd Reading are organised in such a way so that there is no cut off point – it is therefore possible to spend the whole of a parliamentary day talking about one Bill. In reality this only happens if particular objection is taken to a Bill by Government or Opposition and they want to make sure that the Bill does not progress beyond that point. As with any other Bill, a PMB has to complete its Second Reading in order to move forward, and if it is still being debated at the close of the day then it will fall from the Order Book and there will no longer be any requirement to debate it. When this happens deliberately it is commonly called “talking out” a Bill.

If a Private Member's Bill successfully passes its Second Reading then it passes to the subsequent stages of any other Public Bill. If it successfully passes all the stages in the Commons, it passes to the House of Lords.

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