– in the House of Commons at on 6 July 1923.
Mr Frederick Thomson
, Aberdeen South
I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
This Bill raises no point of principle and I do not think it involves any controversy. It embodies proposals agreed upon at a conference of representatives of the five great cities of Scotland, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Greenock, and is designed to effect certain improvements in the machinery of town council elections in Scotland. The first Clause proposes to fix the time by which nominations for town council elections must be made and the time by which nominations must be withdrawn respectively four days earlier than at present. The municipal elections in Scotland are held on the first Tuesday in November, and as the law now stands the nominations may be made up to the Tuesday previous, and can be withdrawn up to the afternoon of the Thursday, which leaves a very short time in which to make the necessary arrangements for the employment of presiding officers and so forth. That often means working at high pressure and involves considerable additional expense, and we propose to ante-date the period fixed for the nominations and withdrawals by four days in each case. This Clause applies only to the five great cities, but all other burghs can adopt it, by resolution of the town council, if they so desire. The second Clause empowers the returning officer in a burgh which is divided into wards, to appoint a deputy returning officer or officers. This power is already possessed by returning officers at Parliamentary and county council elections. A returning officer may have a good deal of time taken up in connection with spoiled papers and so forth, and the declaration of the poll may be delayed by the fact of there only being one returning officer, and it is therefore proposed to apply, to municipal elections, the same rule in this respect as that which now applies to Parliamentary and county council elections.
Clause 3 proposes a slight Amendment of the law. As the law now stands the votes cannot be counted after the hour at which the poll closes until 9 o'clock on the following morning, unless the agents of the parties or, if there are no agents, the parties themselves, agree otherwise. The Town Councils (Scotland) Act of 1900 provides that the poll shall be declared on the following afternoon and it was found that in some cases this led to delay. In the Majority of cases, the parties or the agents gave the consent indicated, but it is felt that in cases where that consent is not forthcoming, the returning officer should be authorised to proceed with the counting of the votes during the hours between the close of the poll and 9 o'clock on the following morning to prevent any delay in the declaration of the poll. In Clause 4 we propose that it shall be possible to have a polling station outside a polling district. This rule prevails in connection with Parliamentary elections. There may be a school or a hall available within the polling district, but nevertheless inconveniently situated for the great bulk of the electors, whereas one immediately outside the polling district might be conveniently situated. It is allowable, as I say, in Parliamentary elections to have the polling place outside the district, and we propose that the same rule shall apply to municipal elections. The fifth Clause applies to Glasgow. In the rest of the country, parish council elections take place on the same day and under the same conditions as the town council elections, but in the case of Glasgow, there is a special and separate parish council election under the Glasgow Corporation (General Powers) Act, 1896. We propose to make the necessary Amendment to enable the returning officers in Glasgow to have the same powers as those conferred on returning officers in the rest of the country by the proposals of Clauses 2 and 3. It is a short and unpretentious Measure, and I hope the House will be prepared to give it a Second Reading.
The Second Reading is the most important stage for a Bill. It is when the main purpose of a Bill is discussed and voted on. If the Bill passes it moves on to the Committee Stage. Further information can be obtained from factsheet L1 on the UK Parliament website.
The amendment of the law motion relates to the chancellor's Budget statement.
It is a general resolution laid before the House of Commons by the chancellor of the exchequer.
It enables the financial changes proposed in the Budget statement to be passed into law.
The amendment of the law is moved formally at the start of the Budget debate and, together with the Ways and Means resolutions, is voted on at the end of this debate.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
In a normal session there are up to ten standing committees on bills. Each has a chair and from 16 to 50 members. Standing committee members on bills are appointed afresh for each new bill by the Committee of Selection which is required to take account of the composition of the House of Commons (ie. party proportions) as well as the qualification of members to be nominated. The committees are chaired by a member of the Chairmen's Panel (whose members are appointed by the Speaker). In standing committees the Chairman has much the same function as the Speaker in the House of Commons. Like the Speaker, a chairman votes only in the event of a tie, and then usually in accordance with precedent. The committees consider each bill clause by clause and may make amendments. There are no standing committees in the House of Lords.
