Queen’s Speech debate: selection of amendments – Standing Order No 33

The Queen’s Speech, which sets out the Government’s legislative programme for the forthcoming parliamentary session, is debated on a motion for an Humble Address thanking Her Majesty for the Gracious Speech.  The motion is amendable and amendments can be selected for debate on the final two days of debate on the Queen’s Speech.

On 8 May 2014, the House agreed to a motion to repeal and replace Standing Order No 33.  The Standing Order, as originally passed, allowed the Speaker to call more than one amendment to the motion on the final day of debate on the Queen’s Speech, in addition to the amendment in the name of the Opposition which, by practice, is debated and voted upon on the penultimate day of debate on the Queen’s Speech.  From 1979, when the Standing Order was originally passed, until May 2013, the Speaker had only ever allowed a maximum of two amendments to be moved on the final day of debate but on 15 May 2013, he allowed first the Opposition amendment, then a backbench Conservative amendment (which would have added “but respectfully regret that an EU referendum bill was not included in the Gracious Speech” to the humble Address); and finally an amendment tabled by the Plaid Cymru Members.

A Government motion to repeal and replace Standing Order No 33 was first tabled in November 2013.  It limited the number of amendments that the Speaker could select to three, including the amendment selected on the penultimate day (hence to just two on the final day).  A number of amendments to the Government’s motion were tabled during the course of November 2013.

On 1 May 2014, the Government, supported by the Chair of the Procedure Committee, tabled a revised motion for a new Standing Order that would limit the number of amendments that could be selected by the Speaker to four in total, thereby allowing a maximum of three on the final day (assuming the usual practice of disposing of an Opposition amendment on the penultimate day). 

Standing Order No 33, as agreed on 8 May 2014, allows the Speaker to select up to four amendments of which notice has been given on a motion for an address in answer to Her Majesty’s Speech.  No amendment may be selected before the penultimate day of debate on the Queen’s Speech.  On the final day of debate, an amendment proposed by the Leader of the Opposition is debated and voted on; and, after the moment of interruption, the other amendment that have been selected are moved and put forthwith (without further debate).