Orders of the Day — Sustainable Communities Bill — 19 Jan 2007 at 12:58

MPs voted on a technical motion "That the Question be now put". In other words, those voting Aye were agreeing that now was an appropriate time to put the Question. Those voting No were saying that debate should continue.

Unfortunately, this language is somewhat confusing, since it fails to define what "the Question" is. In this case "the Question" was "Should the Bill receive its second reading?".

Translating, this means the original motion was "Is now an appropriate time to proceed to a further motion on whether the Bill should receive a Second Reading?". This is known as a closure motion, simply because it is a motion to end debate. Closure motions require 100 votes in favour, or they will not be deemed to have reached the quorum necessary for them to be carried. Closure motions will only be accepted by the Speaker if he/she deems there to have been enough debate (usually around 4-5 hours) for one to be allowed to be put to the vote. In the event the closure motion was approved by 175 votes to 17.

If the closure motion had not received 100 ayes in favour, debate would have resumed, since closure would not have been granted. This notably happened in the case of Clare Short's Armed Forces (Parliamentary Approval for Participation in Armed Conflict) Bill.

Once closure was secured, the motion to give the Sustainable Communities Bill a Second Reading was approved on the nod, and the Bill proceeded to a public bill committee.

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