§ 3.25 p.m.
§ Order of the Day read for the consideration of the Third Report from the Select Committee.
§ The Committee's Report was as follows:
§ 1.—PROCEDURE IN COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE HOUSE ON PUBLIC BILLS
§ The Committee have reviewed the procedure that is followed when the House is in Committee on a public bill. It is the established practice of both Houses of Parliament that the preamble, title, clauses and schedules of a bill should each be voted affirmatively into the bill. But a procedural difficulty may arise in cases where an amendment has been tabled to leave out a particular clause or schedule. If such an amendment is called, debated and decided like any other amendment, it anticipates and renders otiose the question "That the Clause stand part", or "That this be the Schedule to the Bill". But these questions, by long established custom, are constitutionally indispensable.
§ In order to avoid the illogicality of putting successive questions to the House in different forms on the same issue, the Committee recommend that a proposal to leave out a clause should be treated not as an amendment but as a notice that a particular Peer wishes to speak against the clause on the question "That the Clause stand part"; that such a notice should appear italicised and unnumbered in the Marshalled List; and that when this notice is reached, the Chairman should put the question "That the Clause stand part of the Bill" and call the Peer who has given such notice of his intention to speak.
§ The Committee have also considered the further difficulty that may arise in cases where one or more amendments have been put down to leave out a clause and to substitute a new clause in its place. It is the practice of this House (though not of the House of Commons) to treat such "substitution" amendments as undivided entities. The Committee recommend that the House should continue to treat such amendments as undivided entities, on which the question to be put is "That this amendment be agreed to"; and that such amendments should be listed and disposed of seriatim before the final question (which would always be "That the Clause stand part"). If a substitution amendment is carried, the "Clause" in the final question will then be the new Clause; if not it will be the original Clause.
§ The effect of the Committee's recommendations, if approved by the House, would be as follows:
§ I. A motion to leave out a clause would be shown unnumbered and italicised in the marshalled list as follows:—
§ "Amendment
§ No.