– in the House of Lords at 3:53 pm on 8 January 2025.
Lord Kennedy of Southwark
Deputy Chairman of Committees, Deputy Speaker (Lords), Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
3:53,
8 January 2025
My Lords, before we begin the next item of business, I remind noble Lords of the rules of the House in relation to Conduct Committee reports. Standing Order 68 says:
“Reports from the Conduct Committee resulting from an investigation under the Code of Conduct, together with any motion on a sanction, are decided without debate”.
That is very clear. It is a Standing Order of the House and was agreed by the House in April 2019. The Standing Order means that the only Members who can speak on these Motions are the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, who will speak briefly to both reports, and the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton of Epsom, who will then speak and move his Amendment. The noble Baroness may then reply. No other Member may speak, so once we have heard those contributions we will move to decide whether these reports and sanctions will be agreed.
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.
