Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 25 Gorffennaf 1922.
Sir William Adkins
, Middleton and Prestwich
As a Member of the Standing Committee, I regret that my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead (Mr. G. Balfour) has adopted so high a calorific standard in his comments upon this Bill. It is very easy for Members, equally honest and having equal intelligence, to have differences of opinion on some of the details of the Bill. While I have had my differences with the Parliamentary Secretary in charge of the Bill, and while we are all anxious that our different points of view should be embodied in the Bill in its final stage, I must he allowed to say that the charges made by my hon. Friend come so near charges of wilful deceit that I think they overstate what he really means, and that what has occurred might very easily occur in a Bill of this complexity. Here is a Clause brought in by the Government after hearing Members of the Standing Committee, and after conferring, as they are entitled to confer, with all interested parties, which does not in some of its details meet with the approval of my hon. Friend, for reasons which we shall hear when he moves his Amendment. While I am very much opposed to pieces of Bills being together outside Paeliarment—I am afraid I have worried the House by making that protest frecinently—I submit that where you have had a matter discussed in Standing Committee, it is not quite correct to say more than that it is unfortunate if any prominent Member of that Committee interested in an aspect of the Bill does not happen to have been brought into conference, when other people were brought into conference. Therefore, to that extent I agree with the hon. Member for Hampstead, but I cannot believe that there has been any attempt to arrange this new Clause to the exclusion of the point of view of which my hon. Friend has special knowledge.
In a normal session there are up to ten standing committees on bills. Each has a chair and from 16 to 50 members. Standing committee members on bills are appointed afresh for each new bill by the Committee of Selection which is required to take account of the composition of the House of Commons (ie. party proportions) as well as the qualification of members to be nominated. The committees are chaired by a member of the Chairmen's Panel (whose members are appointed by the Speaker). In standing committees the Chairman has much the same function as the Speaker in the House of Commons. Like the Speaker, a chairman votes only in the event of a tie, and then usually in accordance with precedent. The committees consider each bill clause by clause and may make amendments. There are no standing committees in the House of Lords.
A proposal for new legislation that is debated by Parliament.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
