Thursday, January 28, 2010

What Happens Next...

Thanks due to Fiona N who worked out how this works:

Monday 1st February is the last date for Commons amendments to the Bill Committee.

The Bill Committee will meet on Tuesday 2nd and Thursday 4th next week. The Committee stage will close on Thursday February 4th.

After Committee Stage, if the Bill has been amended, the Bill is reprinted before its next stage and then returns to the floor of the House of Commons for its Report Stage, where the amended Bill can be debated and further amendments proposed.

Report stage gives MPs an opportunity, on the floor of the House, to consider further amendments (proposals for change) to a Bill which has been examined in committee.

There is no set time period between the end of Committee stage and the start of the Report stage.

What happens at Report Stage?

All MPs may speak and vote - for lengthy or complex bills, the debates may be spread over several days.

All MPs can suggest amendments to the Bill or new clauses (parts) they think should be added.

What happens after Report stage?

Report stage is usually followed immediately by debate on the Bill's Third Reading.

1 comment:

firebird said...

As of today they'd only got as far as Clause 6. Even counting amendments by group rather than individually that's 10 down, 29 to go plus 4 new clauses. It's hard to see how they're going to be able to get through all that in 2 days.