Debate on 27 March 2014

The Committee has determined that the following business will take place in backbench time:

Thursday 27 March in the Chamber

• General debate on the background to and implications of the High Court judgment on John Downey (Application presented by: Mark Durkan, Ms Margaret Ritchie, Lady Hermon, Jim Shannon, Dr William McCrea, Mr Laurence Robertson)

Bids for debates received at 18 March meeting

At its public meeting on Tuesday 18 March, the Committee heard, in addition to the representations from Mark Durkan, Ms Margaret Ritchie, Lady Hermon, Jim Shannon, Dr William McCrea, Mr Laurence Robertson, representations from the following:

• Caroline Lucas and Dr Julian Huppert for a debate on UK Drugs policy (relating to e-petition ‘Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 – Impact Assessment’)
• Mr Michael Meacher, Mr Elfyn LLwyd, Ian Lavery for a debate on the sanctioning of benefit recipients for alleged infringements.

Backbench Business Committee

The Backbench Business Committee meets weekly on Tuesdays at 3pm to consider requests for debates from any backbench Members of Parliament on any subject, including those raised in e-petitions or national campaigns.

An MP must make a representation before the Committee for an e-petition or petition to be debated; e-petitions exceeding the Government's 100,000 signature threshold are not automatically allocated backbench time.

The Committee then has to decide how to allocate the limited Parliamentary time it has at its disposal. The Committee's meetings are always conducted in public and can be watched on Parliament TV.

Further Information

• About Parliament: Select Committees
• How the Backbench Business Committee works