This petition was submitted during the 2015-2017 parliament
Petition Call an emergency parliament session to properly discuss NHS Reinstatement Bill.
On 11/03/15 NHS Reinstatement Bill was due for open discussion in parliament, it's second reading. However, due to blatant filibusting by Conservative ministers, the bill was never discussed. Given the wide public support for NHS this manoeuvre to block such an important discussion is unexceptable.
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Given that the NHS Reinstatement Bill not only has cross political party support, but even wider support from the general public - the people who MP's are supposed to represent - it is undemocratic to not have such a debate. To do so would prove that this government is not democratic at all, more of a dictatorship by distraction.
Public support for NHS is evident in the ongoing Junior Doctors Strike. We therfore demand that this Reinstatement Bill be given the time and attention it deserves.
This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months
Government responded
This response was given on 24 March 2016
Private Members' Bills (PMBs) are debated on 13 sitting Fridays in each session and it is for the member in charge of the Bill to nominate the date for Second Reading and manage the Bill’s progress.
Read the response in full
Private Members' Bills (PMBs) are debated on 13 sitting Fridays in each Parliamentary session and on these days PMBs take precedence over government business. Priority is given to those MPs who are successful in the PMB ballot, and subsequent slots are allocated in the order in which MPs introduce their Bill. It is for the member in charge of the Bill to nominate the date for Second Reading of their PMB and manage the Bill’s progress.
Caroline Lucas MP introduced the National Health Service Bill on 1 July 2015 and nominated Friday 11 March 2016 for its Second Reading, which was the last of these sitting Fridays in this current Session. This was the second bill scheduled to be debated that day and, under the rules of the House of Commons, priority is given to the first Bill. This Bill was therefore very unlikely to have enough time to conclude all of its parliamentary stages. The NHS Bill did receive a short debate on Friday 11 March, but now stands adjourned and cannot be debated further because there are no remaining sitting Fridays. All PMBs fall at the end of each parliamentary session.
This topic could be reintroduced into the session should a Backbench MP choose to do so.
There are plenty of opportunities for Backbenchers to debate matters like the NHS, through adjournment debates and debates allocated by the Backbench Business Committee.
Leader of the House
Related activity
Procedure Committee makes recommendations about filibustering
On 18 April, the House of Commons Procedure Committee published a report on Private Members’ Bills. As the NHS Reinstatement Bill was a Private Member's Bill and this petition raised issues about the way that the House of Commons debates these Bills, we thought you might be interested in the Procedure Committee's report and its recommendations
The report states that tactics such as talking out a Bill [filibustering] “cause confusion and frustration to members of the public observing such debates and expecting reasoned discussion on matters important to them.”
The Committee recommends a change to the Standing Orders [the rules] to guarantee a vote on second reading on the first seven bills of a session [a Parliamentary year]. This change would give the Speaker the authority to impose time limits on speeches if necessary to enable this to happen.
Any such change is envisaged only for Second Reading, when the general principles behind a Bill are discussed, and not for all stages of a Bill’s progress. As Committee Chair Charles Walker stated when introducing the report in the House of Commons, the Committee is “not recommending a guaranteed vote on Report [stage of the bill]. What these Bills need is a bit of space on Second Reading to get approved at that stage so that negotiations can take place with the Government before the Bills go into Committee and there is a chance of some output.”
This proposal is part of a wider package of recommendations to the Government, including giving the Backbench Business Committee a role in assessing bids from Back-Bench MPs for some Bills in order to encourage more engaged debate.
The Government will respond to the Procedure Committee's report and recommendations. We will let you know when this happens.
You can read the full Procedure Committee report here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmproced/684/684.pdf
You can read the debate on the Committee’s findings here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-04-18/debates/16041810000002/PrivateMembers%E2%80%99Bills
You can watch MPs debate the Committee’s report on Parliament TV: http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/9ff57b89-d23c-44a7-85a3-5a9872c0ed31?in=16:02:20
You can find out more about the different stages of a bill on the Parliament website: http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/
The Procedure Committee is a group of cross-party MPs which considers the practice and procedure of the House of Commons in the conduct of public business. You can find out more about the work of the Procedure Committee on its website: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/procedure-committee/
You can follow the Procedure Committee on Twitter: @CommonsProcCom
This email has been sent by the House of Commons Petitions Committee. You can find out more about the work of the Petitions Committee on its website here: www.parliament.uk/petitions-committee
You can follow the Petitions Committee on Twitter: @HoCpetitions