Procedures Committee,
Meeting date: Tuesday, May 23, 2000
Official Report
195KB pdf
Amendments to Motions (Withdrawals)
Item 3 deals with the withdrawal of amendments to motions. The substance of the immediate point can be dealt with if we agree that amendments should be handled in the same way as motions. If that appears to require the revision of standing orders, we will take that up in the fullness of time.
A further point relates to the provision for withdrawing both motions and amendments, assuming that we bring amendments into line. That is dealt with in paragraph 6 of the paper that members have before them. It has been the practice for the Presiding Officer to ask whether members are content for the amendment to be withdrawn. It would be appropriate to seek guidance from the clerking directorate and the Presiding Officer to establish how they would deal with a situation in which a member indicated that they were not content for an amendment or motion to be withdrawn. Can one member object or would the chamber have to vote? The situation has not arisen so far, of course, but the advice in the paper concentrates the mind on what might happen.
I understand that, when a committee is dealing with a bill, if a member wants to withdraw an amendment, any other member of the committee can pursue that amendment. I do not know whether that would be relevant to the situation in the chamber.
We should clarify that. A member might want to support another member's amendment. If that member asks to withdraw the amendment, is the other member entitled to force a vote on it? I think that there is an extension of the point there. We will clarify it and report back.
The substantive point is that we will recommend that amendments should be handled in the same way as motions. Are we all agreed on that?
Members indicated agreement.