Debating Private Members’ Bills in the House of Commons

Private Members’ Bills can be introduced by MPs who are not Government Ministers, often known as backbench MPs. It’s up to the MP to choose the topic of the Bill.

Each Friday sitting begins at 9.30am. There will be a list of Private Members’ Bills on the order paper (which sets out the House’s agenda). The House starts by debating the first Bill listed. If debate on that Bill ends before 2.30pm, then the House can move on to debate the second Bill, and so on.

There are several ways that the debate on a Bill can end, including:

• No further MPs wish to speak. The debate is finished, and a decision is taken on whether to give the Bill a second reading.
• The House agrees to end the debate and take a decision. To do this, an MP must move a “closure motion” and it must be agreed to. For a closure motion to pass:

• At least 100 MPs must vote in the Aye lobby, and
• The Ayes need to be more than the Noes.

• The MP who has proposed the Bill agrees to withdraw it. They may also agree to end the debate without a decision being reached that day. They can only do this if no one objects.

All debate must end at 2.30pm. If a Bill is being debated at that time, the Speaker interrupts the debate and asks the MP in charge of the Bill to name a new day for the debate to continue.

The Bill will appear on the order paper for that day. Where the Bill falls in the order of items to be debated depends on the rules for the date chosen.

On the first seven sitting Fridays of the Parliamentary session, MPs who have placed their Bill at the top of the order paper are given priority for debating time, regardless of how much progress other Bills have made.

This means the top seven Private Members’ Bills drawn in the PMB ballot are guaranteed an opportunity for debate, because those Bills are presented first and the MPs can choose the top slots on the first seven Fridays.

From the eighth Friday onwards, Bills which have made progress are given priority, in the following order:

• Consideration of Lords amendments
• Third readings
• Report stages that haven’t yet started
• Report stages that have already started on an earlier day
• Committee of the whole House that has already started on an earlier day
• Committee of the whole House that hasn’t started
• Second readings

If Bills are at the same stage, then the first Bill to be put down for that day is listed first, and so on.