Members

and officers of the

house dis

agents.

XXVI.

(if any), soliciting a bill, are entered in the "private bill Chapter register," in the Private Bill Office, which is open to public inspection.

Besides these regulations, there are certain disqualifications for parliamentary agency. Members may not be qualified as agents; and, in compliance with a recommendation of a select committee of the House of Commons of 1835, no officer or clerk belonging to the establishment is allowed to transact private business before the house, for his emolument or advantage, either directly or indirectly.1

1 Parly. Rep. No. 648 of 1833, p.
9; No. 606, of 1835, pp. 17. 19.

Cf. also 85 C. J. 107; Clifford's
History of Private Bill Legislation

II. 378-9; and Report, etc., (No.
360) of Joint Committee of 1876 on
Parliamentary Agency.

Chapter
XXVII.

Table of Contents, see Introduction.

CHAPTER XXVII.

COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS UPON PRIVATE BILLS IN THE HOUSE
OF COMMONS; WITH THE RULES, ORDERS, AND PRACTICE
APPLICABLE TO EACH STAGE OF SUCH BILLS IN SUCCES-
SION, AND TO PARTICULAR CLASSES OF BILLS.

Commons.

THE proceedings in the House of Commons upon a private Progress of
private
bill will now be followed, step by step from its first intro- bills in the
duction into that house, precisely in the order in which
particular rules are to be observed by the parties or
enforced by the house or its officers: but this statement of
the various forms of procedure may be introduced by a few
observations explanatory of the general conduct of private
business in the House of Commons.

conduct of

motions,

It has been stated elsewhere, that the public business General for each day is set down in the order book, either as notices private of motions or orders of the day: but the notices in relation business. to private bills are not given by a member, nor entered in the order book except in the case of any special proceedings, but are required to be delivered at the Private Bill Notices of Office, at specified times, by the agents soliciting the bills. etc. (private bills). These notices will each be described in their proper places: but one rule applies to all of them alike—they must be s. O. 247. delivered before six o'clock in the evening of any day on which the house shall sit; and between eleven and one on any day on which the house shall not sit; and after any day on which the house has adjourned beyond the following day, no notice may be given for the first day on which it shall sit again. If any stage of a bill be proceeded with when If not duly given, prothe notice has not been duly given, or the proper interval ceedings allowed, or if notice be taken of any other informality, such proceeding will be null and void, and the stage must be repeated.1

1 100 C. J. 423; 101 ib. 167; 106 ib. 75; 107 ib. 157; 122 ib. 66; 133 ib. 61; 139 ib. 57, &c.

void.

Notices printed in the votes.

What to be

deemed private business.

XXVII.

All notices are open to inspection in the Private Bill Chapter Office: but for the sake of greater publicity and convenience, they are also printed with the votes; and members and parties interested are thus as well acquainted with the private business set down for each sitting, as with the public notices and orders of the day.

The time at which matters relating to private bills are
considered by the house has already been stated in the
chapter describing the general transaction of business.1 To
entitle a motion to be heard at the time of private business,
it must relate to a private bill before the house, or strictly
to private business in some other form. Motions for the
amendment of the standing orders relative to private busi-
ness, and matters indirectly connected with the private
business of the house, are also taken into consideration at
the time of private business.3

Conduct of The forms and proceedings in the offices of the house,
bills by
members.
connected with the progress of a bill, are managed by the
agent (or by a solicitor who has entered his name as agent)
for the bill, and by the officers of the house: but, in the
house itself, orders upon a private bill are obtained by a
motion made by a member and a question proposed and
put, in the usual manner, from the chair; and, except
when opposed (see pp. 235. 730. 835), motions relating to
private bills are subject to the general rules of the house
regarding motions (see p. 277).

"Private bill

Every vote of the house upon a private bill is entered in the votes and journals; and, in the Private Bill Office, S. O. 227. Registers are also kept, which are open to public inspection

Registers."

Supra, pp. 233-4.

2109 C. J. 396, &c.; and cf. infra, pp. 726-7. On the 30th April, 1895, a proposed amendment to one of the standing orders relative to private business was not permitted to be moved at the time of private business, on the ground that it dealt simply with general questions relating to the conduct of railway companies, Mr. Speaker stating that amendments to these standing orders, if taken at this time, must

relate directly to the subject-matter
of private bills and not to the gene-
ral conduct of the companies who
promote the bills (33 Parl. Deb.
4 s. 116-118). Similarly, a proposed
general instruction to all commit-
tees on Railway Bills has not been
permitted to be moved at the time
of private business, on the ground
that the proposed motion raised a
question of general policy (Mr.
Speaker's private ruling 26th March,
1895).

XXVII.

Chapter daily, and in which all the proceedings, from the petition to the passing of the bill, are recorded. The entries in these Registers specify briefly each day's proceedings before the Examiners, or in the house, or in any committee to which the bill may be referred. As every proceeding is entered under the name of the particular bill to which it refers, it can be immediately referred to, and the exact state of the bill discovered at a glance.

ings on

After these explanations, the proceedings in the house Proceedmay be described, without interruption, precisely in the private order in which they usually occur.

Formerly-up to and including the year 19031-the petition for a private bill had not only to be deposited, as at present, in the Private Bill Office, but had also to be presented to the house by a member within a specified time after its endorsement by the Examiner. If the standing orders had been complied with, the bill was at once ordered to be brought in, and it was presented, not later than one clear day after the presentation of the petition, by being deposited in the Private Bill Office. If the standing orders had not been complied with, both the petition for the bill and the Examiner's report were referred to the Standing Orders Committee; and, if that committee reported that the standing orders should be dispensed with, the bill itself was similarly ordered to be brought in, and was similarly presented, not later than one clear day after the house (by agreeing to the committee's resolution) had given parties leave to proceed with the bill.

bills.

presented.

Now, however, in those cases where the Examiner has Private bill endorsed the petition for a bill "standing orders complied S. O. 196. with," the bill itself is presented by being laid on the table of the house, not later than one clear day after such endorsement; or if, when so endorsed, the house should not be sitting, then not later than one clear day after the first

1 The alterations of the standing orders regulating the presentation of private bills were made on the 30th July, 1903, 158 C. J. 369.

2 Although the order "That leave be given to bring in " a private bill

is not now made, the term order of
leave is still familiarly used to
denote the purposes - comprised
within the notices and petition for
the bill-for which any such bill
provides.

XXVIL

subsequent sitting; and in case the house should not sit on Chapter
the latest day allowed for laying the bill on the table, it is
to be so laid on the first day on which the house shall
again sit.

Where the Examiner has reported that the standing orders have not been complied with, his report is referred to the Select Committee on Standing Orders; and when this committee have reported that the standing orders ought to be dispensed with, the bill is presented by being laid on the table of the house not later than one clear day after the house, acting on the report of the Standing Orders Committee, has given leave to the parties to proceed with the S. O. 195. bill. On the day previous to the day fixed for their being laid upon the table of the house, all private bills must be deposited in the Private Bill Office; and they are laid on the table of the house by one of the clerks of that office.

Standing The Committee on Standing Orders1 is a sessional com-
orders
committee. mittee, appointed by standing order No. 91 which pro-
S. O. 91. vides that it shall consist of eleven members, who are to
be nominated at the commencement of every session, and
of whom five shall be a quorum. In practice, the number
of the committee is increased to thirteen members, under
an order annually made by the house when the committee
is nominated. And the quorum of the committee is as a
rule reduced, late in a session, from five to three.

Examiners' reports

them.

S. O. 93, 92, 99.

To this committee are referred all the reports of the referred to examiners of petitions for private bills in which they report that the standing orders have not been complied with, whether the bills originate in the Lords or in the Commons. And the committee have to determine and to report to the house, in each case, whether such standing orders ought or ought not to be dispensed with, and whether, in their opinion, the parties should be permitted to proceed with their bill, or any portion of it, and under what (if any) conditions.

All special reports made by the Examiner are also

1 As to the Standing Orders Committee in the House of Lords, cf. infra, p. 841.

2159 C. J. 26; &c.

3149 C. J. 278; &c.