Part of Orders of the Day — Local Government (Scotland) Bill. – in the House of Commons am ar 26 Ebrill 1929.
Mr Emanuel Shinwell
, Linlithgowshire
A point of difficulty arises. It may be that we may not desire to oppose that part of the new Clause which provides for an extension of the rating relief proposals to lands and heritages in which no persons are employed. That may be a very desirable proposal. But we may desire to take exception to the remaining part of the Amendment. It would appear to me that we are precluded from voting in the affirmative in respect of one provision, and in the negative in respect of the other. Clearly, you cannot divide the new Clause into two parts to enable hon. Members on these benches to express themselves. I am not quite clear whether there will be an opportunity later, in the event of this Clause being defeated, to enable Members on these benches to vote in favour of the proposed Amendment extending the rating provisions to single man businesses.
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.
