Secretariats website

Carrying Over Legislation

Carryover of Commons Bills whilst still in the Commons

30.1 Under Standing Order no 80A, public Bills which started in the Commons and have not yet left the Commons may be carried over from one session to the next. The intention to carry over should normally be indicated at Second Reading.

30.2 Carryover should not be seen as a means of extending the time available for a Bill towards the end of its passage (and does not in fact result in any extra time being made available, as a carryover Bill must in any case complete its Parliamentary passage within 12 months of the date of First Reading in the first session, see below and above). It does however give the Government some flexibility to delay the introduction of a small number of Bills which may have been particularly complex to draft – normally no more than two or three per year.

30.3 Carryover Bills also help to spread the workload of Parliament over the course of the session. Bills introduced in the Commons for carryover in the late spring/early summer give the Commons new Bills to scrutinise at a time when most Commons starters have gone to the Lords (and because generally fewer Bills start in the Lords there are not as many Bills arriving from the Lords to the Commons).

30.4 To carry a Bill over, the Minister must put down a motion that proceedings on a public Bill not completed before the end of the session shall be resumed in the next session. The motion must be in respect of only one Bill. If a carry-over motion is put down for the same day as Second Reading, it can be decided without debate. If put down at any other time, it is debatable for 1½ hours.

30.5 Carryover can be for one session only. Standing Orders require that proceedings on any Bill which has been the subject of a carry over motion be brought to a conclusion by a particular time, and that time can (provided it has not already expired) be extended by the House.  In other words, the Bill must complete its Parliamentary passage within 12 months of its First Reading in the first session or it will fall – unless the House has previously agreed to an extension motion (debatable for 1½ hours). (Note that Royal Assent itself need not be notified within 12 months, though it would normally be notified shortly after completing Parliamentary passage.)

30.6 Carryover Bills are normally introduced in late spring/early summer, so that significant progress can be made in the first House before the end of the session. In order to be carried over at the end of the session, the Bill must have received a Second Reading but not yet received a Third Reading in the first House. There is no requirement for the Bill to reach the end of Committee stage or the end of Report stage by the end of the session – proceedings may be suspended at any stage between Second and Third Reading and the Bill carried over.

30.7 In the second session, the Bill is presented and printed in the same terms as it stood when suspended in the first session (i.e. including any amendments that were made to the Bill). It will then be considered to have been read the first and second time and will be set down for whatever stage it had reached (or committed to a Committee in respect of the remaining parts of the Bill, if proceedings in the previous session were suspended partway through Committee). Any notices of amendments, new clauses and Schedules not disposed of in the previous session will be reprinted.

30.8 On introduction in the second session, the Explanatory Notes, Impact Assessment and Delegated Powers Memorandum must be reissued, revised as necessary to reflect the Bill as it stood at the end of the first session (i.e. any amendments that were made to the Bill in the first session). The Minister in charge must also sign a fresh section 19 ECHR statement.

30.9 Decisions on which Bills to carryover are made by the Business Managers. Departments who consider that their Bill might be suitable for carryover should mention it when bidding for a legislative slot and should discuss the possibility of carryover with Legislation Secretariat. More often it will be Legislation Committee who suggest carryover to assist the management of the legislative programme.

30.10 Bills cannot be carried over from one Parliament to the next unless they are Hybrid Bills or Private Bills, when different procedures apply.

Carryover of Lords Bills whilst still in the Lords

30.11 The House of Lords has also agreed to permit carryover of Bills, but normally only where they have been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny. Whether a Bill is eligible for carryover needs to be agreed through the usual channels.

30.12 The procedure for carryover in the Lords is not regulated by Standing Order, and requires agreement of an ad hoc carryover motion, which is debatable.

Carryover of Bills once in their second House

30.13 There are no precedents for second House carryover of public Bills, which would require the agreement of ad hoc motions in both Houses. These motions would be debatable. In the second session, the Bill would be presented in the originating House, be considered to have gone through all its stages in that House and passed. It would then be sent to the second House, where it would be considered to have completed all the stages completed the previous session and be set down for the next stage.

30.13 Second House carryover would only be practicable in cases where there was a high level of cross-party agreement.