Secretariats website
Last updated: 08 July 2009
Work of the Bill team in Committee
28.1 Public Bill Committee stage is one of the most intensive periods of work in the Bill's progress through Parliament. The bulk of the work involves supporting any oral evidence to be given by the Minister, and providing notes on amendments (both Government and Opposition) for the Minister. The number of amendments (and the amount of work) will vary according to the size and subject matter of the Bill and how well prepared the Bill is when it is introduced. The Bill team can help to manage this workload by preparing notes for the clause stand part debates before the Bill is introduced.
28.2 The work at Committee stage can be divided into:
28.3 Most Government Bills are committed after Second Reading to a Public Bill Committee, with the power to take oral evidence. A Bill can also have its Committee stage “on the floor of the House” if speed is essential and/or if the Bill is of major constitutional importance, and occasionally because the Bill is so uncontroversial that no amendments are expected. Committal provisions (that is, provisions stating to what form of committee a Bill is to be sent) are usually contained in a Programme Motion.
28.4 If a Bill is not programmed, then if no separate committal motion is made the Bill automatically goes to a Public Bill Committee without the power to take oral evidence – unless (and this is rare) a separate committal motion is moved immediately after Second Reading, without debate, to refer the Bill to a Public Bill Committee with the power to take oral evidence, or to a Select Committee.
28.5 Finance Bills, and very occasionally other Bills, are split between a Committee of the whole House and a Public Bill Committee. This requires a motion which can be briefly debated, or will be wrapped up, like other committal motions, in the Programme Motion. Which clauses are taken on the floor is a matter for discussion between the usual channels: the Bill team is unlikely to be involved in these decisions.
28.6 Bill teams normally find it very useful to talk to the Clerk of the Committee about the handling of the Bill and this is encouraged. Remember, though, that to avoid confusion, the formal channel of communication between the Department and the Public Bill Office is through Parliamentary Counsel. Bill teams should make contact with the Clerk of the Committee early on and ensure that they are included on the Clerk’s email list circulating the Chair’s final selection list of amendments to Committee members. Contact the Public Bill Office, House of Commons (020 7219 3258).
Membership of the Public Bill Committee
28.7 Members of Public Bill Committees are chosen by the Committee of Selection so as to reflect the party composition of the House. The Committee normally makes its selection on the Wednesday afternoon following Second Reading. The Minister may wish to suggest the selection of Members from among those interested in the Bill. If a Bill makes a significantly different provision in Wales, the Minister may wish to include the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales on the Bill Committee to speak to those clauses. These suggestions should be routed through the Government Whips' Office via the Parliamentary Clerk.
28.8 Law Officers who are Members of the House may attend Committees ex officio; they may then take part in the debates but may not move any motion or amendment, or vote. They may on the other hand be chosen as full members of the Committee if this is desirable in view of the nature of the Bill. A Whip serves on all Committees dealing with Government Bills.
28.9 Throughout the Committee stage the Chairman of the Committee will be advised by the Committee Clerk, who will have consulted Parliamentary Counsel on the selection and grouping of amendments and other procedural points. Generally, the same Clerk will subsequently be responsible for preparation of an initial draft selection for consideration by the Speaker when the Bill returns to the floor of the House.
28.10 One or more officials from the Bill team and the legal advisers attend Committee sittings, occupying the seats to the right of or behind the Chairman. Officials going to and from these seats should always enter by the Members' entrance to the Committee room and move along the dais behind the Chairman – but should not walk across the dais behind the Chair while the Chair is on his/her feet putting Questions or addressing the Committee. Any additional officials can usually be accommodated in the Public Gallery. If oral evidence is being taken, officials may be placed in seats behind the Members. In no circumstances should officials enter or cross the part of the room in which the Members sit while the Committee is sitting. Permission to attend is not necessary as it is for the officials' box in the Chamber, though security passes for the Palace of Westminster are of course are required.
28.11 On arrival it is usual to give the Hansard writer a copy of all speaking notes. Parliamentary Counsel may attend and will, amongst the officials, sit closest to the Chairman, as part of his/her function is to assist the Clerk in advising the Chair on, for example, questions of scope or the effect of a proposed amendment. Notes from the Bill team should be cleared by the Legal Adviser and passed to the Minister via the Parliamentary Private Secretary as discreetly as possible.
28.12 Arrangements for Public Bill Committee are dealt with by the Public Bill Office and the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit. Bill teams should make contact with the Scrutiny Unit before or as soon as possible after introduction to the Commons, to help planning for Public Bill Committee.
28.13 Sufficient copies of up to date editions of legislation that is being amended by the Bill, and is not readily available elsewhere, should be provided to the Clerk of the Public Bill Committee for each member of the Committee to be given their own personal copy. (See also note on providing text of existing legislation as amended.)
28.14 The Bill Minister may consider sending an Introductory letter to members of the Committee providing any information that is considered might be helpful to the members outlining any amendments that the Government may be tabling during the Committee.
Timing and timetabling of proceedings in Committee
28.15 Committee stages of Bills will generally be programmed. The House will set an out-date from Committee and a Programming Sub-Committee chaired by the Chairman of the Committee concerned may set a more detailed timetable (the level of detail will vary according to circumstances). A motion in the terms of the resolution agreed by the Programming Sub-Committee is moved by the Minister in the Public Bill Committee – usually at the beginning of the first day – and can be debated for up to half an hour. The Minister may also wish to make a short opening statement.
28.16 It is usual for a motion giving effect to a recommendation of a Programming Sub-Committee to provide that the Committee will meet at set times, usually on Tuesdays at 10.30am and 4pm and Thursdays at 8.55am and 2.30pm. The times may vary, but morning sittings on a Tuesday must end at 1pm, and on Thursday normally start between 8.55am and 9.30am and must end by 10.25am. Afternoon sittings cannot start earlier than 3.30pm on a Tuesday or 12.30pm on Thursday and may continue until the Committee decides to adjourn. A motion to adjourn will usually only be accepted for debate by the Chairman if moved by a Minister of the Crown, normally the Government Whip.
Oral evidence in a Public Bill Committee
28.17 All programmed Bills are committed to a Public Bill Committee which has the power to take oral and written evidence. In practice, whereas all such Committees may receive (though they may not actively solicit) written evidence, not all such Committees will necessarily take any oral evidence. However, Bill teams that have taken Bills through oral evidence sessions have found that, as long as Ministers are well prepared and there is a good range of witnesses, the sessions have been helpful in airing arguments that surfaced later on in debate.
28.18 A Public Bill Committee with the power to take oral evidence has to decide whether to exercise the power. This will be through a proposal agreed by the Programming Sub-Committee on the Bill, ratified by the Committee itself. Evidence-taking will be the norm, but the Government has stated that it will not be proposing evidence sessions for Bills that start in the Lords. Where a Bill has received Parliamentary pre-legislative scrutiny, just one evidence session, or in some cases none, would normally be appropriate. There may be other exceptional cases where the Government does not propose oral evidence-taking for a programmed Bill.
28.19 The public evidence sessions operate under the programming structure for Committee, so departments can still plan on the basis of an “outdate”, set by the programming motion, by which the Bill must be reported from Committee. The new process allows the available time to be divided up between evidence-taking and clause by clause scrutiny, and the more time is devoted to evidence-taking, the less will be available for clause by clause scrutiny.
28.20 The schedule for oral evidence will form part of the motion which the Programming Sub-Committee will agree and put to the full Committee for ratification, and like the other parts of the motion will be drafted by Parliamentary Counsel on the basis of instructions from the department arising from discussion through the usual channels. The motion will generally include not only the proposed sittings at which oral evidence will be taken but also the proposed witnesses.
28.21 The Ministers and officials will normally be either the first of last witnesses to give oral evidence. The decision as to whom to invite to give evidence is for the Committee, but departments will want to consider advising the Minister on which other witnesses or groups of witnesses would be appropriate, balancing available time, the different interests involved, any consultation process etc. Departments should keep in touch with the Government Whips' Office about plans for the Committee in this respect. The Government has indicated that it would expect Committees to adhere to the recommendation of the Modernisation Committee to hold “at least one” evidence session.
Written evidence in a Public Bill Committee
28.22 For all programmed Bills in Public Bill Committee, whether or not subject to oral evidence hearings (i.e. including Lords starters and Bills that have received Parliamentary pre-legislative scrutiny), the Committee has the power to receive written evidence. Any written evidence (whether from those also giving oral evidence, or from others) will be received after the Bill has been Introduced into the House of Commons and processed by the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit working in support of the Public Bill Office.
28.23 Any written material received directly by the department will not count formally as written evidence to the Public Bill Committee, though if it appears that the material has been sent to the department by mistake or under the impression that this was the correct route for submission, the department can redirect it to the Scrutiny Unit.
28.24 The Public Bill Committee is responsible for deciding whether it formally accepts any material received as “evidence”, how and when it will be made available to the members of the Committee, and how it will be reported to the House and published. The Bill Minister and Whip will receive copies as members of the Committee. Note that letters to the Committee from the Bill Minister may well have the status of evidence to the Committee, and, if published, may become liable to the rule in Pepper v Hart (see chapter 32). Written evidence accepted by the Committee is published on the internet regulalry while the Committee is sitting; most or all of it will also be published in hard copy once the Committee has completed consideration of the Bill.
Supporting the Public Bill Committee evidence-taking process: liaison with the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit
28.25 During the oral evidence stage, Bill teams will need (a) to brief the Bill Minister for any oral evidence they are to give (and attend in support of the Minister if invited) and (b) to follow the other oral evidence sessions in order to inform their work on the Bill. They will also need to follow any written evidence which is received.
28.26 The House of Commons Scrutiny Unit coordinates briefing to Members for the evidence-taking stages of Public Bill Committee, and processes written evidence. Subject to the agreement of the Bill Whip, early discussions between departments and the Scrutiny Unit will be advisable (if necessary on a confidential basis), as whatever the outcome of the discussions in the usual channels and the final proposal of the Programming Sub-Committee, it will be the Scrutiny Unit which has to make the formal arrangements for the attendance of witnesses.
28.27 Departments may also wish to liaise with the Scrutiny Unit over publicity arrangements for inviting written evidence. The House web pages will have basic instructions for the public on how to submit evidence, but the Scrutiny Unit may be able to propose a form of words for incorporation into departments' own publicity tabout the bill to ensure a coordinated and helpful approach. Bill teams should arrange with the Scrutiny Unit for written evidence received by the Committee to be delivered directly to the Bill team (on behalf of the Bill Minister, as a member of the Committee).
28.28 Working with other House services including the Library, the Scrutiny Unit may also wish to engage with departments as to the content and timing of Bills (including ahead of the Bill's publication, where possible) in order to facilitate timely and accurate briefing. The Scrutiny Unit can be contacted on scrutiny@parliament.uk 0207 219 8383/8387
Completion of oral evidence and transition to clause by clause consideration
28.29 Usually all the oral evidence sessions will be grouped together at the beginning of the Public Bill Committee proceedings. The programme motion may have provided for the Committee to begin clause by clause consideration (in the order set out in the “order of consideration” element of the motion described below) at the same meeting as oral evidence finishes, or – more usually – at the beginning of the next meeting. However, it is possible for an oral evidence hearing to be scheduled at a later point, after clause by clause consideration has started.
Order of consideration during clause by clause consideration
28.30 If no provision is made to the contrary, the Committee goes through the Bill clause by clause in the following order:
28.31 It is quite normal for the order of consideration to be varied by the motion to give effect to the resolution of the Programming Sub-Committee. This may mean for instance that schedules are taken immediately after the clauses to which they relate, and matters of importance are discussed early in proceedings, to assist the Committee in their consideration. Such orders of consideration are discussed through the usual channels.
28.32 The Committee may disagree to any of (or indeed all) the clauses and Schedules and conversely is not limited by the long title of the Bill, being permitted by Standing Orders to make amendments “relevant to the subject matter of the Bill” provided that, where such amendments are outside the title, the title is extended to cover them.
28.33 Amendments that are not relevant in this way are beyond the scope of the Bill and cannot be entertained unless a special instruction has been given by the House to the Committee; and there are limits on the matters that can be made the subject of an instruction. Amendments which lack the necessary sanction of a Money or Ways and Means resolution are not in order.
28.34 The Chairman of the Committee has the same power in Committee as the Speaker has on the floor of the House to check irrelevance or repetition in debate, refuse or allow dilatory motions (that is, a motion to adjourn a debate. Note that once a Bill is programmed, dilatory motions may only be moved by a Minister of the Crown) and select and group amendments or decide that they are out of order, and decide whether to accept a closure or put the question on clause stand part without debate. But there is no rule against a member of the Committee speaking more than once on any question in Public Bill Committee or in Committee of the whole House.
28.35 Note that if the Minister agrees to write to a member of the Committee, the letter should be addressed to that member of the Committee and sent within 24 hours if possible. This letter should generally also be copied to the Chair and other members of the Committee and a copy placed in the Library of the House.
Tabling Government amendments in Committee
28.36 This section covers procedural points specific to tabling amendments in the Commons. Bill teams should also read the main section on amendments which describes what sort of Government amendments are likely to be agreed to and how to obtain collective agreement for amendments to Bills.
28.37 Amendments may be put down by any Member of the House but must be moved by a Member of the Committee. An amendment put down by one Member of the Committee may be moved by another Member.
28.38 Where possible, Government amendments should be tabled at Committee Stage rather than Report, since more time for debate is available. Government amendments should be put down in the name of the lead Minister. The only exception to this rule is for certain special cases, for example where a Bill is clearly the joint responsibility of two departments or for territorial amendments, where the name of more than one Minister may be used. These exceptional cases should always be discussed with Parliamentary Counsel and Legislation Secretariat. Whichever style is decided upon should be used throughout Committee. If a list of names is to be used, officials and Parliamentary Counsel should have the list before Committee stage begins.
28.39 All Government amendments (and proposals to accept non-Government amendments) must be cleared by Legislation Committee, and by the relevant policy Committee of Cabinet where appropriate – see the chapters on collective agreement and amendments. Once a Government amendment has been drafted (for which the department will need to instruct Parliamentary Counsel) the Bill team should get Ministerial authority for the wording so that the legal adviser can instruct Parliamentary Counsel to put the amendment down.
28.40 Amendments should ideally be tabled at least one sitting week in advance to give the Committee sufficient notice, but must generally be tabled no later than three working days before the earliest day on which they may be reached in proceedings of the Committee, or two such days in Committee of the whole House. However, non-sitting Fridays are regarded as sitting days for this purpose, as are certain specified days towards the end of a periodic adjournment (a recess) – in other words, if amendments are tabled on a non-sitting Thursday, the House returns the next Monday and the Committee sits on the Tuesday (Committees sit on Tuesdays and Thursdays), the amendments will not be starred on the order paper on Tuesday. In practice, the only days that do not count as sitting days for tabling purposes are weekends and bank holidays.
28.41 The Bill team should ensure that ministerial approval is obtained and drafting is completed in time to meet these deadlines. The Minister may wish to send a short note to Committee members giving the reasons for the amendment(s).
28.42 To table on a given day, the amendments must be handed in to the Public Bill Office before it closes – closing time may vary depending on what time the House rises that day. Parliamentary Counsel, who will table the amendments, will advise. It is important not to leave tabling until too late in the day. If handed in with less than three sitting days’ notice before a sitting of the Committee, amendments will appear with a black star on the Order Paper for that sitting (a "starred amendment"), and if reached on that day will not usually be called (in other words, they will not appear on the Chairman’s provisional selection of amendments and cannot be moved). Amendments marked with an outline or “empty” star are those where two days’ notice has been given (but will not be reached on that day); they will comply with the required notice period at their next appearance.
28.43 Manuscript amendments may be handed in on the day the Committee will reach them; but Chairmen will not accept manuscript amendments save in exceptional circumstances, e.g. where the amendment is generally desired and arises out of current discussion or where the Government has tabled its amendments so late the Chairman considers it only fair to accept manuscript amendments to them.
Tabling of non-Government amendments
28.44 Amendments and new clauses appear numbered (on a blue sheet if the Committee does not meet that day) in the Vote Bundle on the day after notice of them is handed in. The numbering of amendments reflects the order in which the amendments were tabled. A marshalled list in the correct order is issued (on a white sheet) on the morning of the day the Committee is sitting. In the run-up to a Committee session, departmental Parliamentary Branches should check with the Public Bill Office each day for advance notice of any amendments that have been tabled, and can collect copies of the amendments at any time up to the rising of the House. It should be remembered that on some Fridays the House may rise at 3.00pm, and it is likely to have risen before 6.30pm on a Thursday evening. Amendments may be tabled on non-sitting Fridays. Bill teams should agree with their Parliamentary Branches what time they will send the list of amendments for each sitting, and should scan and allocate immediately to policy leads for the preparation of notes on amendments.
28.45 Amendments identify the clause, page and line number to which they relate, and will propose to do one of the following:
28.46 The amendment “to leave out from word X in line p to word Y in line q” would have the effect of deleting the words between X and Y but neither of those words themselves. An amendment can propose to leave out a specified element within a clause or schedule, such as a subsection, paragraph or sub-paragraph. No amendment is needed to leave out a clause or Schedule since the question on each is proposed automatically. Nonetheless, if the Government intends to vote against a clause it should signal the fact in advance by tabling a (strictly unnecessary) amendment to leave out the clause.
Selection and grouping of amendments
28.47 Apart from amendments of which inadequate notice has been given, the Chairman may rule an amendment out of order for one of several reasons (e.g. irrelevance, point already decided, out of scope); or s/he may decline to select an amendment if, for example, it is frivolous or the point is better covered by another amendment.
28.48 The Chairman will also group amendments for discussion where they all bear on one subject of debate. The Committee Clerk usually consults Parliamentary Counsel before advising the Chairman on the selection and grouping of amendment, so if the department has particular preferences as to the grouping of the amendments these should be communicated to Parliamentary Counsel beforehand. Parliamentary Counsel will usually email the Chairman's provisional selection and grouping of amendments (at least on a provisional basis) to a list of recipients in the department on the day before the sitting. Final versions of Groupings Lists are available in the Public Bill Committee Room.
28.49 Where one amendment paves the way for a more substantial later one (a “paving amendment”), the substantive amendment may be debated with it. In the same way a consequential amendment may be debated with the substantive amendment going before it; the “consequential” will then not be moved if the substantive amendment has been lost, and will be moved formally, when the appropriate point in the Bill is reached, if the substantive amendment has been made.
28.50 An amendment can be proposed to an amendment; if this happens, the amendment to the amendment is moved and disposed of before a decision is taken on the original amendment.
Grouping
28.51 Each day a list of amendments will be issued under the authority of the Chairman of the Committee. It may look like this:
Clause 1
1 + 7
3+ Govt 4 + Govt 10 to Govt 12 + Govt 5
6 + NC 17…
28.52 A very large number of non-Government amendments may be tabled for Committee (and Report) stage and the Bill Minister must respond to them all. A good system for keeping track of each amendment is therefore critical, particularly for Lords stages, where the numbering system can make it harder to keep track of amendments, evolving groupings, and the drafting of speaking notes. Note that the numbering systems for amendments in the Lords and Commons differ. At the very least, a spreadsheet should be used to record amendments as they come in, and provide a means of checking that speaking notes have been drafted. A spreadsheet allows amendments to be sorted into groups, and these groups to be assigned to an official for drafting. It also allows Bill managers to assign a ‘dummy’ number to amendments which have yet to appear on the marshalled List, so they can be assigned to provisional groups and sent out for speaking notes to be drafted. The spreadsheet generates what will become the final numbers when the list is marshalled. When the marshalled list arrives the Bill team should carefully cross-check, amend any dummy numbers used in speaking notes and go through the groupings again. This should be quicker than going through the marshalled list and converting each number in turn.
“Clause stand part” (and equivalent for Schedules)
28.53 Once all amendments relating to an individual clause have been disposed of, the question is then proposed that the clause stand part of the Bill. The Minister does not move that a clause stand part of the Bill, or that Schedule n be the nth Schedule to the Bill: the question is proposed by the Chairman without any motion. If the Government intends to delete a clause, it should table an amendment to this effect. This amendment will not be selected for debate; it signifies the Government's intention to vote against the proposition that the clause stand part of the Bill.
28.54 Depending on the significance of the clause and the extent to which it has already been discussed, there may be a debate on the principle of the clause as a whole or any point in it. The Chairman has power to direct that the principle of the clause has been adequately dealt with in debate on the amendments offered to it, but this is only rarely exercised. It is advisable to draft notes on clause stand part as early as possible in proceedings, perhaps even before a Bill is introduced into Parliament but definitely before Second Reading. Any format that suits the Minister's preferences could be used.
28.55 A new clause is first debated on the question that the clause be read a second time. (The First Reading takes place without debate at the conclusion of the mover's speech and is signified by the Clerk reading the title of the new clause.) If the question is agreed to, amendments may be proposed to the clause; after they have been disposed of the question is put, that the clause (as amended) be added to the Bill. The same procedure applies to a new Schedule. The location of a New Clause in the Bill is not specified by the mover (as it is in the Lords).
28.56 Speaking notes and background briefing will be needed on all amendments and new clauses, even those which have not been selected by the Chairman (although clearly priority will be given to those which have) because there could be late changes in the selection and grouping or the member may try to make his/her point during the “clause stand part” debate.
28.57 Almost daily sessions with the Minister, and frequent contact with Parliamentary Counsel, may be required to settle the line to be taken on each. Time is often so short at this stage that a good understanding with the Minister about what need or need not be cleared by him/her is invaluable. The fact that amendments look out of order or unlikely to be selected should not be relied on too much, although Parliamentary Counsel will be able to confirm that an amendment is likely or unlikely to be selected.
28.58 As there is often little time available to produce notes on amendments, the Bill team should arrange with the Parliamentary Clerk to get the earliest possible notice of new amendments. It may be possible to leave aside for the present amendments referring to clauses far ahead in the Bill, but a good margin should be allowed because Committee proceedings can always begin to run faster without warning.
28.59 The Bill team must also understand which amendments go together, what their intention is, and what their effect would be (which may be very different). Consultation with the legal adviser or Parliamentary Counsel may be needed to inform the position the Government decides to take on each amendment.
28.60 Depending on the Minister's personal preference, the note drafted on each amendment should either be headed Government Amendment (if it is one), or should begin by indicating in a short heading the line recommended e.g. Resist, Accept in principle, Accept or Agree to consider. If the recommendation is to be anything but Resist, Parliamentary Counsel must be consulted before the recommendation is made to the Minister.
28.61 Managing the drafting of speaking notes for amendments is one of the most challenging responsibilities for a Bill team. It is essential that the Bill team develop a standard template for drafting notes on amendments using a format clearly understood by Ministers and officials alike. A sample notes on amendment template is provided in Annex A, but any template that meets the Minister's preferences could be used.
28.62 The substance of the notes on amendments needs to be carefully thought out. For Government amendments this should be straightforward; but for non-Government amendments it is not always easy to work out just what the member is trying to achieve or why. For an ordinary amendment, the structure would be:
Having analysed the amendment in this way, the note should then set out the line or lines of argument recommended.
28.63 The Bill team should clarify in advance what the Minister wants: either a series of points set out crisply and clearly, in tolerably short sentences, for the Minister to build into a speech in their own way; or (as is more usual with any Minister unfamiliar with the subject) a speaking note which s/he can simply deliver verbatim, adding only the conventional courtesies (which officials need not draft). There is, of course, a degree of risk with a speaking note drafted in advance: if when the amendment is proposed officials realise that they have missed the point, they will have to warn the Minister somehow.
28.64 It may be helpful for the Bill team to contact other Members, particularly members of the Public Bill Committee, including those in Opposition parties, directly to discuss the purpose of their amendments, but the Bill Minister's approval should be sought before doing this.
28.65 Notes on amendments should never devote more than a passing reference to the adequacy or otherwise of the drafting. Opposition and backbench amendments are very often defective in some degree; but it is for the Opposition and backbenchers to propose changes to the Bill and for the Government, which alone has drafting resources, to clean up the drafting.
28.66 Where several amendments are consequential on an earlier substantive amendment and the whole group is likely to be considered together, they may all be covered by the same note. If this is done it must be made clear that the note does in fact cover a number of amendments.
28.67 Notes on amendments should be emailed to the Parliamentary Counsel in charge of the Bill, if possible in time for comments to be made before they are finalised. The final versions of notes on amendments and the Minister's speaking notes should be emailed to Parliamentary Counsel – even if they are sent after the relevant sitting of the Committee, it would be helpful if those notes relating to amendments where the recommendation is to reject the amendment could be separated out from the other notes.
28.68 On the motion that the clause stand part of the Bill, points may be raised of which notice has not been given. The Explanatory Notes are of value here, but officials must be ready to give Ministers notes on any points if required. What was said about notes in Second Reading debates applies here. While Ministers are more accessible in the Committee Room than in the Chamber, speeches tend to be shorter so the temptation to deluge the Minister with notes should be resisted.
28.69 Ministers may wish to have speaking notes for use on “clause stand part”, or the Explanatory Notes or any Notes on Clauses themselves may include passages suitable for such use.
28.70 Generally, the tone of proceedings in Public Bill Committee is very different from that in the Chamber. Practical points are more in evidence than debating points and all Members are usually anxious to see that the Bill is improved by the Committee's scrutiny. The Minister will usually wish to respond accordingly. Particularly in the early stages of Committee proceedings the Minister's attitude may make a great difference to the progress that can be made. The Bill team's advice and the way in which their notes are expressed should aim to help the Minister to strike the right note.
Do: provide full factual analysis; and give the reasons why the amendment is to be resisted as fully as possible.
Don't: begin briefing with political point scoring; concentrate on the Opposition's record; or suggest the Minister commit to look again at an issue unless policy really will be reconsidered.
Providing text of existing legislation as amended
28.71 If the Bill team has prepared a text showing how the Bill would look if particular sets of amendments were agreed to as part of the Minister's briefing, they should publish this part of the briefing (only the text of the Bill as it would look if amended – not any of the surrounding commentary or briefing) and supply copies to members of the Public Bill Committee. However, there is no obligation on departments to prepare such briefing for members of the Public Bill Committee if they had not planned to produce it for the Minister anyway.
28.72 Ministers must not make commitments to bring forward amendments or to accept non-Government amendments without clearance from Legislation Committee, and from the relevant policy Committee of Cabinet if the amendment would effect a change in policy.
28.73 Non-legislative commitments do not require Legislation Committee clearance unless they relate to future use of Parliamentary time, e.g. a commitment to hold an annual debate on a certain topic, but will require policy clearance if they would effect a change in policy.
28.74 The Bill team should keep a list, day by day, of commitments made by Ministers in Committee: e.g. to move an amendment on Report to meet some Member's point, or to consider further some argument which has been put forward. Action should be set in train immediately on these points. Parliamentary Counsel must be asked to draft the necessary amendments; or officials to prepare letters for the Minister to send to the Member etc, which will generally be copied to the Chairman and other Members of the Committee and the Library of the House.
28.75 If a Minister promises to consider a matter, the promise will be noted by the Clerk and amendments on the subject are likely to be selected on Report. Ministers should accordingly be selective in such promises or Report Stage will become a repetition of Committee. When such promises are made, the necessary work should begin at once and not be left until the end of Committee stage.
28.76 At the end of Committee it is usual for the Bill Minister to thank everybody who has been involved for their hard work. Decide in advance whether Private Secretaries or the Bill Team will read Public Bill Committee Hansard on behalf of Ministers.
28.77 Occasionally a Bill is committed after Second Reading to a Select Committee. The Committee takes evidence and deliberates, like any Select Committee, and may produce a report. It then goes through the Bill in private and amends it as it thinks fit. Once it has reported the Bill to the House, the Bill is normally recommitted to a Public Bill Committee or to Committee of the whole House. In recent times this procedure has been used only for hybrid Bills and for the quinquennial Armed Forces Bills.
Explanatory statements on amendments
28.78 In the 2006-07 and 2007-08 sessions a pilot has been conducted with selected Bills with the inclusion on the list of amendments tabled of an “Explanatory Statement” of no more than 50 words on each amendment. Such statements – as with the Explanatory Notes to a Bill – must be factual and non-argumentative in nature.