Part of Orders of the Day — STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS, &c. – in the House of Commons at 10:30 am on 16 March 1992.
Miss Betty Boothroyd
Deputy Speaker (Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means)
10:30,
16 March 1992
Order. No, I have the gist. The hon. Gentleman was in the House, but he was not in the Chamber. That is to be regretted, but he cannot now officially present his petition formally. However, he can place it in the bag. I hope that he will do that now and allow us to get on with the Adjournment Debate, the motion for which has already been moved.
An adjournment debate is a short half hour debate that is introduced by a backbencher at the end of each day's business in the House of Commons.
Adjournment debates are also held in the side chamber of Westminster Hall.
This technical procedure of debating a motion that the House should adjourn gives backbench members the opportunity to discuss issues of concern to them, and to have a minister respond to the points they raise.
The speaker holds a weekly ballot in order to decide which backbench members will get to choose the subject for each daily debate.
Backbenchers normally use this as an opportunity to debate issues related to their constituency.
An all-day adjournment debate is normally held on the final day before each parliamentary recess begins. On these occasions MPs do not have to give advance notice of the subjects which they intend to raise.
The leader of the House replies at the end of the debate to all of the issues raised.
