Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 25 Gorffennaf 1922.
Mr Arthur Hayday
, Nottingham West
I was rather hopeful that the Parliamentary Secretary would have given us such an explanation as would have cleared away all possible doubt in this matter. That he has not done. This Sub-section certainly opens up very grave possibilities. The Subsection does not deal with any single private company or any single municipal authority. It deals with some joint concern that may be composed of municipalities or a great private combine. Such a concern might find a very large deficiency to be met at the end of a year. If looseness is permitted there will be negligence, and negligence and looseness together will have the result that there will be no desire to make the income meet expenditure. If the concern is sure that on review at the end of the period, whatever has happened, it can make good that deficiency by calling upon those who are jointly interested in the concern, that is to say, the wholesalers, and that the deficiency can be allocated to the consumer, who has already paid the charges for the particular period, the possibilities are serious. That is the possibility which presents itself to my mind. If that be so, if this Sub-section is giving some covering power to the joint partners in the concern to recover from consumers who have already met their accounts then it seems to me entirely unnecessary, and the first Sub-section should stand by itself. It enables them to meet their charges over a period of years. If there happens to be a deficiency on the first year, then it will make them more careful in their estimate for the forthcoming year and enable them to so rearrange their charges that there will be less possibility of a deficiency at the next annual review. It appears to me, in the absence of some more lucid explanation, that the Amendment is thoroughly justified, and if the Mover forces it to a Division I shall be bound to support him.
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.
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
