Sports Grounds Safety Authority Bill — That the House Sit in Private — 4 Mar 2011 at 09:30

The majority of MPs rejected a motion "That the House sit in private".

Jonathan Lord MP moved: "That the House sit in private", then voted against his own motion. The vote was declared "not decided" because less than 40 MPs voted.

Standing Order^[1] No. 163 states once a motion to sit in private has been moved it must be "forthwith put" ie. the speaker or the chair must straight away ask MPs if they agree or not and if necessary proceed to a vote. Standing order 163 also states a motion to sit in private may only be moved once per sitting. The fact the vote was not decided is was not important, the fact that it was moved is all that matters.

This motion was moved shortly after Parliament began its day's sitting at 0930, this had the effect of preventing it being used later in the day. If the motion had been moved later in the day and less than 40 MPs had voted in the resulting division under standing order 41 the debate in progress would have been "stood over" ie. stopped, and resumed at the next sitting of the house.

It is likely that the aim of the motion was to ensure the passage of Jonathan Lord MP's private members bill, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority Bill 2010-11^[1] was not impeded by a motion to sit in private while it was being debted. ie. the this motion shows that Jonathan Lord MP was very keen on seeing his bill continue on its path to becoming law.

Had Johnathan Lord not moved this motion, and there had been few MPs available to vote (as there often are on Friday mornings when Private Members Bills are being debated) the passage of his Bill could have been at least delayed by the tabling of motion to sit in private. He may not have obtained another slot in the Parliamentary timetable to try again to get his bill through.

• [1] House of Commons Standing Orders, April 2010 - PDF
• [2] Sports Grounds Safety Authority Bill 2010-11

Debate in Parliament | Source |