CONSOLIDATED FUND (No. 1) BILL.

HC Deb 25 March 1890 vol 342 cc1821-2

Order for Committee read.

(4.5.) MR. SEXTON

I wish to ask you, Sir, whether one Order of the Day can be properly separated from the others, so as to give it precedence over Notices of Motion on Private Members' nights?

* MR. SPEAKER

Yes; that is the practice repeatedly sanctioned by the House for many years in the case of Money Bills and Bills of that nature. In 1876 and 1879, in one year on March 21, and in the other on March 25 (this very day), a Consolidated Fund Bill was so put down, in one case on Tuesday, and in the other on Friday.

MR. BUCHANAN (Edinburgh, W.)

May I ask whether this discretion on Tuesdays is limited to Consolidated Fund Bills and Money Bills?

* MR. SPEAKER

It is not limited to Money Bills. The practice extends to Bills for which urgency can be properly claimed.

MR. BUCHANAN

Can a Bill so put down only be taken by consent?

* MR. SPEAKER

This Bill was put down for half-past 3, I must observe, by Order of the House. It was yesterday ordered to be taken at half-past 3 today.

MR. BUCHANAN

Can it only be taken by consent?

* MR. SPEAKER

Oh, no.

MR. SEXTON

Is the judgment of the Government conclusive as to urgency?

* MR. SPEAKER

Yes. It is on the ground of urgency that a Money Bill is so put down.

MR. BUCHANAN

Do I understand your ruling to be that on Monday evening it is in the power of the Government to move that any Bill may be taken on the Tuesday before Motions because, it may be without any reason or without notice, it considers that Bill urgent?

* MR. SPEAKER

I think the exercise of that right of making such a Motion would be watched by the House with great jealousy, but it has been the practice for many years to take the Consolidated Fund and other Money Bills, and the course now taken is, therefore, consistent with Parliamentary practice.

MR. J. LOWTHER (Kent, Isle of Thanet)

I assume that the judgment of the Chair would be exercised, and that no Bill would be put down which, in the judgment of the Chair, was not urgent?

* MR. SPEAKER

It does not rest with the Chair. The Order is made by the House. But it might be my duty to call the attention of the House to the circumstances, if I thought it necessary.

Bill considered in Committee and reported.