| This article is part of a series on |
| Politics of the United Kingdom |
|---|
 |
 United Kingdomportal |
The Ten Minute Rule, also known as Standing Order No. 23, is a procedure in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom for the introduction of private member's bills in addition to the 20 per session normally permissible. It is one of the ways in which a bill may receive its first reading.
Any Member of Parliament (MP) may introduce a bill under the Ten Minute Rule, although in practice it is only used by backbenchers. To qualify to introduce a bill under the rule, the MP in question must be the first through the door to the Public Bill Office on the Tuesday or Wednesday morning fifteen working days (usually three weeks) prior to the date they wish to introduce their bill. Due to the popularity of the rule and the difficulty in launching a private member's bill by other means, MPs have been known to sleep outside the Public Bill Office in order to guarantee a slot. [1] In 2014 three MPs agreed a sleeping rota between themselves in order to ensure that they were first in the queue. [2]
Ten Minute Rule motions are held in the main chamber of the House of Commons immediately after question time, around 12:45pm on most Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Whichever MP has reserved the slot presents their bill and is entitled to speak for 10 minutes to convince the house of its merit. After the 10 minutes have passed, another MP may speak for a further 10 minutes to oppose the bill. The Speaker then calls a voice vote to decide whether the bill should be allowed a second reading, to debate the bill at a later date. The Speaker will divide the house for a recorded count of votes if there is some opposition. However, the majority of Ten Minute Rule motions are not objected to, [3] and are allowed to proceed without any debate at this stage; this is because MPs have not yet been able to review the bill's content. [4]
When a Ten Minute Rule motion passes, the bill is added to the register of parliamentary business. It is scheduled for debate along with the other private member's bills, but at a lower priority. The Backbench Business Committee (or Leader of the House of Commons, if the government decides to support the bill) are responsible for determining if and when to allocate parliamentary time for a second reading debate; the MP presenting the bill must then inform the Speaker of its date. The bill is generally printed and published shortly before the second reading.
Bills introduced under the Ten Minute Rule rarely progress much further, because the government usually opposes private member's bills at the second reading and any later stages. Given their low priority in the schedule, there is often insufficient time for the legislative process to complete before the end of the parliamentary session. Most Ten Minute Rule introductions are instead used to stimulate publicity for a cause, especially because the debate follows the media-popular question time and is usually broadcast live on BBC Parliament. Alternatively, a Ten Minute Rule bill can be used to gauge the opinion of MPs on an issue which is planned to be introduced in another bill at a later date.
Sometimes bills introduced under the Ten Minute Rule do become law, passing through every stage of legislation including royal assent. Between 1945 and 2010, there were more than sixty acts of Parliament which were initially introduced under the Ten Minute Rule, including the Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act 2002. [5] As of 2024 [update] , the most recent example is the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) (Amendment) Act 2019.
The Military Action Against Iraq (Parliamentary Approval) Bill was introduced under the Ten Minute Rule in 1999, but was denied Queen's Consent for its progression to a second reading. [6] This vetoing of the bill by the monarch was on the advice of government ministers; it was later criticised in the media. [7] [8] [9]
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 members known as members of Parliament (MPs), who are elected to represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster in London. Parliament possesses legislative supremacy and thereby holds ultimate power over all other political bodies in the United Kingdom and the Overseas Territories. While Parliament is bicameral, it has three parts: the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The three parts acting together to legislate may be described as the King-in-Parliament. The Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation.
The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 are two Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which form part of the constitution of the United Kingdom. Section 2(2) of the Parliament Act 1949 provides that the two Acts are to be construed as one.
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislature of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and is composed of three parts: the King, the Senate, and the House of Commons. By constitutional convention, the House of Commons is dominant, with the Senate rarely opposing its will. The Senate reviews legislation from a less partisan standpoint and may initiate certain bills. The monarch or his representative, normally the governor general, provides royal assent to make bills into law.
An act of parliament, as a form of primary legislation, is a text of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction. In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament begin as a bill, which the legislature votes on. Depending on the structure of government, this text may then be subject to assent or approval from the executive branch.
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in others that is a separate step. Under a modern constitutional monarchy, royal assent is considered little more than a formality. Even in nations such as the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein and Monaco which still, in theory, permit their monarch to withhold assent to laws, the monarch almost never does so, except in a dire political emergency or on advice of government. While the power to veto by withholding royal assent was once exercised often by European monarchs, such an occurrence has been very rare since the eighteenth century.
A private member's bill is a bill introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in which a "private member" is any member of parliament (MP) who is not a member of the cabinet (executive). Other labels may be used for the concept in other parliamentary systems; for example, the label member's bill is used in the Scottish Parliament and the New Zealand Parliament, the term private senator's bill is used in the Australian Senate, and the term public bill is used in the Senate of Canada. In legislatures where the executive does not have the right of initiative, such as the United States Congress, the concept does not arise since bills are always introduced by legislators.
The House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes laws, provides ministers to form the Cabinet, and supervises the work of government. It is also responsible for adopting the state's budgets and approving the state's accounts.
A bill is a proposal for a new law, or a proposal to substantially alter an existing law.
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows adults in the United Kingdom who have gender dysphoria to change their legal gender. It came into effect on 4 April 2005.
The Parliament of Malaysia is the national legislature of Malaysia, based on the Westminster system. The bicameral parliament consists of the Dewan Rakyat and the Dewan Negara. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King), as the head of state, is the third component of Parliament.
The Dewan Rakyat is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament, the federal legislature of Malaysia. The chamber and its powers are established by Article 44 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The Dewan Rakyat sits in the Houses of Parliament in Kuala Lumpur, along with the Dewan Negara, the upper house.
The 39th Canadian Parliament was in session from April 3, 2006 until September 7, 2008. The membership was set by the 2006 federal election on January 23, 2006, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections. The Parliament was dissolved on September 7, 2008, with an election to determine the membership of the 40th Parliament occurring on October 14, 2008.
The Parliament of Singapore is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Singapore, which governs the country alongside the president of Singapore. Largely based upon the Westminster system, the Parliament is made up of Members of Parliament (MPs) who are elected, as well as Non-constituency Members of Parliament (NCMPs) and Nominated Members of Parliament (NMPs) who are appointed. Following the 2020 general election, 93 MPs and two NCMPs from three political parties were elected to the 14th Parliament. Throughout the sitting of Parliament, nine NMPs are usually appointed by the president on a biennial basis.
An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament in Westminster, London.
Stephen James Metcalfe HonFIET is a Conservative Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Basildon and East Thurrock from 2010 to 2024. He sat on the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee and served as chair.
A private members' bill (PMB) in the Parliament of the United Kingdom is a type of public bill that can be introduced by either members of the House of Commons or House of Lords who are not ministers. Less parliamentary time is given to such bills and as a result only a minority of PMBs actually become law. Such bills can be used however to create publicity for a cause or issue and can affect legislation indirectly.
The European Union (Referendum) Bill 2013–14 was a private member's bill of the Parliament of the United Kingdom designed to make provision for a referendum on membership of the European Union to be held in 2017 following renegotiation of terms between the European Union and the United Kingdom government. The bill ceased to be considered by Parliament after January 2014 and did not become law. However, a subsequent bill with the same objective, the European Union Referendum Act 2015, was later introduced to the House of Commons by the newly elected Conservative government in May 2015 was passed and received royal assent on 17 December 2015.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019, commonly referred to as the Cooper–Letwin Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made provisions for extensions to the period defined under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union related to the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. It was introduced to the House of Commons by Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Conservative MP Sir Oliver Letwin on 3 April 2019, in an unusual process where the Government of the United Kingdom did not have control over Commons business that day.
Dean Russell is a British politician and author who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Watford from the 2019 general election until the 2024 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Enterprise and Markets for 37 days in 2022.
