Part of Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:30 am on 9 March 2010.
Tim Boswell
Conservative, Daventry
9:30,
9 March 2010
Is not the issue simply that one sets aside contracts at one’s peril, and that it is important that, although there is the real-world issue of the burden of debt, which needs to be relieved—everyone in the Committee wants to address that; indeed, it is why we are here—it needs to be done in a precisely defined way that is not likely to give rise to trouble or to compensating commercial premiums in the future?
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.
