The Backbench Business Committee allows individual backbench MPs to propose business for debate in the House of Commons.

The committee can schedule debates on any topic that it chooses.

The committee is always chaired by an opposition MP but contains MPs from all parties in the House of Commons.

20 July 2025 marks 15 years since the Backbench Business Committee held its first debate.

Why was the Backbench Business Committee established?

The Backbench Business Committee was established to give backbench MPs more power to decide what is debated in the House of Commons.

The majority of business in the House of Commons is government business, which is scheduled by ministers. On ‘opposition days’, business is scheduled by the Official Opposition or other opposition parties. In the years immediately before 2010, only government and opposition parties (rather than individual backbench MPs) could schedule votable debates on the floor of the House.

In a 2009 report on reforming House of Commons procedures, the Wright Committee recommended a change. The committee said that MPs should be given more say over what is debated in the House of Commons:

it is in our view time for Members of the House, through a committee of their elected colleagues, to take some responsibility for what the House debates, when and for how long; and also for what it does not wish to debate, either at all or at its current length.

The Wright Committee argued that creating a Backbench Business Committee would:

  • allow the House to discuss issues that are a priority for MPs, without compromising the time for discussion of government business
  • give MPs a “greater sense of ownership and responsibility” for business in the House of Commons
  • make debates “more responsive to public concerns” by allowing MPs to propose debates based on issues raised by their constituents
  • “strengthen the position” of select committees

On 15 June 2010, after a general election, the House of Commons voted to establish the Backbench Business Committee. The new committee was given the right to schedule debates in time that had previously been allocated for debates on set topics, including defence and European affairs.

Who sits on the Backbench Business Committee?

The Backbench Business Committee is made up of a chair and seven other members. The chair, currently Bob Blackman MP (Con), is elected by the whole House and must be an opposition MP. Other members are elected by their own party’s MPs. The party balance of the committee is similar to the party balance of the House.

Members of smaller parties who would not otherwise get a seat on the committee can be invited to take part in the committee’s discussions, though they cannot vote. Only one guest MP from a smaller party can be invited to each meeting.

How does the Backbench Business Committee schedule debates?

The Backbench Business Committee can schedule business on 35 days in each parliamentary session, with at least 27 days of those days being scheduled in the House of Commons Chamber and the rest in Westminster Hall.

The Backbench Business Committee meets on Tuesdays to hear MPs’ proposals for future debates. MPs proposing debates must complete an application form in advance of the Tuesday meeting. The committee can also schedule debates in the chamber on subjects proposed by the Petitions Committee or schedule shorter amounts of time for the chair of a select committee to make a statement on (and answers questions about) a newly published committee report.

In the House of Commons Chamber, the Backbench Business Committee is allocated time in slots of 90 minutes, a half-day or a full day. The committee can schedule debates as it chooses within those times, although in practice some of its time can be lost to other business such as ministerial statements or urgent questions. Debates are framed around a motion, which can either be:

In Westminster Hall, the committee can schedule a 90-minute debate on a Tuesday, two 90-minute debates on a Thursday or a three-hour debate on a Thursday.

Motions agreed to in backbench debates become Resolutions of the House but are not binding on the government.

What topics get scheduled for backbench debate?

The Backbench Business Committee can schedule debates on any subject. It decides on subjects based on factors such as how topical the subject is, how many MPs are likely to take part and whether the subject is being debated at another time in the House of Commons.

Backbench business debates have historically shown a preference for certain policy areas. In the 2019–24 Parliament, health was the policy area that the committee most commonly selected for debate. Over 20% of debates focused on health (excluding the non-health impacts of the covid-19 pandemic), over 15% on international affairs and almost 10% on environmental issues. Debates were often framed around an anniversary, a public holiday or an ‘awareness’ day, week or month, such as:

The committee’s approach to selecting debates contrasts with the use of backbench time before 2010, when a set number of days were allocated each session to certain subjects. While the committee has continued to schedule regular debates for some of these subjects, such as debates on St David’s Day and International Women’s Day, it has not done so in all cases. For example, in its report on the work of the Backbench Business Committee in the 2010-15 Parliament, the committee noted that under the new system “there has been a loss to the House of set-piece debates on defence”, which had been allocated five days of debate each session until 2010.

About the author: Alice Baxter is a researcher in the House of Commons Library specialising in Parliament and the constitution.

Photo by: House of Commons via Flickr

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