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Resumption of sittings.

Notice of estimates to be considered.

Supply resolutions.

XXII

for the immediate resumption of the committee of supply Chapter
compels the reproposal of the question for the Speaker's
leaving the chair; and a division has been taken against Part IV.
that question,' and amendments moved thereto.2

When the order of the day for the committee of supply
becomes a dropped order by a sudden adjournment of the
house, under the practice explained elsewhere (see p. 263),
if necessity arises, the house at the next sitting immediately
resolves itself into the committee of supply.

notice, see

Notice of transaction of business in committee of supply.When the transaction of business is desired, notice of the estimates intended to be submitted to the committee is affixed to the order of the day. The notice of an estimate has been waived by the house, on the 11th June, 1886, Waiver of under urgent circumstances; and, similarly, it has been held that estimates could be considered, public notice in the house having been given of an intention to take them, although notice to that effect had been accidentally omitted from the notice paper circulated among the members of the house.8

Form of supply resolutions.-Each grant is placed before the committee of supply by a motion, which repeats the definition contained in the estimate of the total amount of each grant, and of the particular service for which the sum

124th May, 1860, 115 C. J. 267.
• Assistant-Surgeons, Navy, 8th
April, 1850, 105 ib. 198; Billeting
Soldiers, 7th April, 1856, 111 ib. 124;
Forms of Prayer, 13th July, 1858,
113 ib. 306; 115 ib. 454; Flogging
in the Army, &c., 15th March, 1867,
122 ib. 106; Recruits, 16th May,
1867, ib. 219; 133 ib. 266; 174 H.
D. 3 s. 1960; 205 ib. 1515; 206 ib.
322. In order to meet the require-
ments of the public service, the
house has exercised much freedom
of action in dealing with the com-
mittee of supply, and the resump-
tion of the committee has been
obtained, immediately after business
has been transacted therein, upon
the report to the house of the resolu-

tions of the committee. Thus on
one occasion, the house went into
committee, three resolutions were
passed, and on the report of the
resolutions, a motion was made
forthwith that the sitting of the
committee should be resumed, 27th
June, 1879, 134 C. J. 301; 247 H. D.
3 s. 888. 1046. And a like motion
has been made at a nine o'clock sit-
ting when pursuant to a standing
order, since repealed, the chairman
made his report to the house, 15th
July, 1887, 142 C. J. 373 (see p. 213,
n. 1.)

21st June, 1889, 337 ib. 425;
68 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 449. See also 39
ib. 283.

p. 244.

XXII.

Part IV.

Chapter is demanded. The form the motion takes is, "That a sum, not exceeding l., be granted to his Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 19—, for" the object therein specified.

Committee

procedure,

2

Procedure on supply grants.-A motion for a grant may see p. 389. be submitted to the committee in the order selected by the mover without regard to the order and arrangement of the estimates. The grants for future expenditure arising in an ensuing financial year can be voted before a supplementary grant to make good past expenditure which had arisen in the then current financial year. Nor is a partially considered motion, of necessity,3 brought forward as the first motion at the next sitting; and when such motion is again submitted to the committee, the chairman proposes the question thereon disengaged from any amendment which may have been already proposed thereto, as the renewal of the amendment is left to the option of the committee.*

A grant may also be submitted to the decision of the Items voted committee, at the discretion of the mover, by a proposal of separately. the items of which a grant is composed, in separate resolutions. For instance, an estimate for the purchase of land at South Kensington comprised three items. The first item was moved as a separate grant, which was agreed to; and the two other items, taken together, were proposed as another grant, which was negatived,-a course which was pursued with the express sanction of the chair. This course was also taken, during the session of 1890, regarding the grants for the household of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and for the offices of his chief secretary, which were, in the first instance, proposed in a single resolution." In like manner, a grant, composed of differing forms of

1 215 H. D. 3. s 1014.

2 18th March, 1887, Navy Grants: (1) men, (2) wages, (3) supplementary, 142 C. J. 121; do. 5th and 9th March, 1891, 146 ib. 125. 131. Army: (1) men, (2) pay, (3) supplementary, 14th and 19th March, 1890, 145 ib.

187. 192.

28th June, 1883, 280 H. D. 3 s.
1713.

23rd Aug. 1887, 319 ib. 16291;
133 Parl. Deb. 4 s. 1530.
5 171 H. D. 3 s. 937.
6145 C. J. 466.

Supplementary grants.

Procedure

on a grant

XXII.

Debate on

supple

demand, and founded on various estimates for the same Chapter
service, can be proposed in one motion; for instance, a
supplementary grant, in addition to the original grant Part IV.
specified in the estimates, can be taken in one resolution,
the words, "including a supplementary sum of 1.," mentary
being inserted therein. Nor is the committee precluded see p. 621.
from considering at the same sitting both a grant on
account, and the grant itself for which the grant on account
was made.2

estimates,

account, see

The motion by which a grant on account is proposed, Debate on on account, follows the customary form. The motion states the total grants on sum required; and the various amounts needed for each P. 622. department, which compose that sum, are stated in a schedule appended to the resolution. The question proposed thereon from the chair follows the terms of the resolution, and places the total sum, the aggregate grant, before the committee for its decision; and upon that question amend- Reduction ments can be moved for the reduction of the whole grant,3 or for the reduction or omission of the items whereof the grant is composed.*

Procedure in committee.

Grants proposed by a minister.—The proposal of a motion for a grant of supply must be made by a minister of the Crown; though an exception was formerly made in the case of the grant for the British Museum, which might be moved by a member who, as a trustee of the museum, was responsible for the administration of the grant; 5 a petition for aid from the trustees having been presented to the House, under the recommendation of the Crown, and referred to the committee of supply. 6

see p. 617.

Except in the manner of moving amendments (see p. 616), Relevancy in debate the procedure of the committee of supply follows the on supply, ordinary usage of the house: no amendment can be moved see p. 619. which is not relevant to the grant under consideration; nor can a motion for postponing a proposed resolution be

1 Suppression of the Slave Trade, 144 C. J. 456.

2 26th March, 1863, 118 ib. 140;

9th April, 1877, 132 ib. 138.

3 132 ib. 139.

4 178 H. D. 3 s. 740.

5 The last occasion was the 16th August, 1883, 283 H. D. 3 s. 877. 146 C. J. 145.

XXII.

Chapter entertained. Each resolution for a grant forms a distinct motion, which can only be dealt with by being agreed to, Part IV. reduced, negatived, superseded, or, by leave, withdrawn ;1 and the withdrawal can be made, although the decision of the committee has been taken upon amendments proposed to the resolution. If a resolution be under consideration at the close of a sitting, the committee report the resolutions to which they have agreed, and also report progress in respect of the last resolution which was then under consideration; 2 though such resolution as has been mentioned (see p. 613), is not of necessity moved at the next sitting of the committee.

Public ex

penditure

Here the power of the committee ceases. The committee may vote or refuse a grant, or may reduce the amount thereof, either by a reduction of the whole grant, or by the omission or reduction of the items of expenditure of which the grant is composed: but the committee have no other function.

of sums

The constitutional principle which vests in the Crown No increase and the the sole responsibility over national expenditure, and which specified forbids the Commons to increase the sums demanded by the by the Crown, see Crown for the service of the state (see p. 563), is strictly

recommendation of the

p. 558.

enforced in the committees of supply, and ways and means.
For instance, it was held, 9th March, 1863, that a member
could not move an addition to the number of men stated
upon the army estimates, although apparently the grant
for pay upon the estimates provided for a number of
soldiers larger than the number therein specified; and
analogous motions have been ruled out of order, although
the proposed increase in the number of men was nominal,
designed only for the correction of an alleged error in the
estimates. No amendment can, therefore, be proposed,
whether by a minister of the Crown, or by any other
member, to increase the amount of a grant beyond the sum

1 175 H. D. 3 s. 77.

2 145 C. J. 64. 72. 187.

169 H. D. 3 s. 1267; see also Pay of General Officers, 10th March,

1834, 21 ib. 1377; General Officers
of Marines, 29th Feb. 1864, 173 ib.
1282.

estimates.

XXII.

specified in the estimate. If such increase be necessary, the Chapter original estimate must be withdrawn, and a revised estimate presented, specifying the number of men required, or the Part IV. No altera sum to be demanded, or additional estimates must be predestination. sented.1 Nor can the committee attach a condition or an

tion of

Priority given to amendments over the

original motion.

expression of opinion to a grant, nor alter its destination."
This rule came under consideration when a grant for the
packet service was proposed, accompanied by a proviso
prescribing that no part of the grant was applicable to
certain payments for the conveyance of mails subsequent to
the 20th June, 1863. An objection was taken to the proviso
as an infraction of this rule: but as the proviso was strictly
relevant to the grant for the packet service, and merely
defined the purposes for which the grant was designed, the
objection was not sustained by the chairman, and the regu-
larity of the proviso was subsequently confirmed by the
action of the house. On a subsequent occasion, this pre-
cedent was followed; and an amendment to the words defin-
ing the destination of a grant was permitted, as the intention
of the amendment was to define the purpose for which the
vote was designed, and to render the resolution consistent
both with the object to which the grant was destined, and
with the description thereof in the estimate.1

3

Mode of proposing amendments in the committee of supply.
-The method which regulates the proposal of amendments

1 In 1858, the new ministry having proposed reductions in the army and navy estimates prepared by their predecessors, a question arose whether, in committee of supply, the votes proposed by them might not be increased to the amount of the original estimates. To obviate these doubts, revised army estimates were prepared, and the order for referring the original army estimates to the committee was discharged (113 C. J. 112. 120): but as regards the navy estimates, no such precaution was taken.

2 See Speaker's ruling, 4th Aug. 1843, 71 H. D. 3 s. 294. Though

undoubtedly out of order, amend-
ments of this nature have been
moved, but the proceeding has been
either withdrawn, or subsequently
negatived, such as an amendment
to a building grant for the Uni-
versity of London, by a proviso,
"That no part of such sum shall be
applied to the erection of any build-
ing according to either of the designs
now exhibited,”- -a proviso omitted
on report, 122 C. J. 266. 270; see
also 130 ib. 324.

118 ib. 231. 239; 170 H. D.
3 s. 1882. 2024.

3rd May, 1886, 141 C. J. 180; 305 H. D. 3 s. 166.

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