Part of Petitions – in the House of Commons at 7:31 pm on 25 March 2015.
Rehman Chishti
Conservative, Gillingham and Rainham
7:31,
25 March 2015
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I had intended to present a petition to the House tomorrow in relation to my constituents wanting three ships—HMS Cressy, HMS Hogue and HMS Aboukir—to be protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. However, I have been advised that as tomorrow is the last sitting day, there will be no Adjournment Debate, and on that basis no Member can present a petition to the House. Can you advise me? If I bag the petition today will it still be regarded as having been formally presented to the House?
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.
The Deputy speaker is in charge of proceedings of the House of Commons in the absence of the Speaker.
The deputy speaker's formal title is Chairman of Ways and Means, one of whose functions is to preside over the House of Commons when it is in a Committee of the Whole House.
The deputy speaker also presides over the Budget.
