Scheduling of parliamentary business by the Leader of the House

On 13 July 2017, Valerie Vaz, the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, obtained the leave of the House to hold an Emergency Debate (under Standing Order No 24) on the Scheduling of Government Business by the Leader of the House.

The 3 hour debate will take place in the Chamber on Monday 17 July 2017, as the first item of public business.

In her application for the debate, Ms Vaz outlined the reasons for her application for a debate:

• As the Government have announced that the 2017-19 parliamentary session will last for two years, references to sessions in Standing Orders “should be interpreted as per year, therefore with dates allocated to be pro rata”.  At the moment, for example the Government proposes only 13 days for private Members’ bills – the allocation in a normal length session;
• So far, the Government has not allocated an Opposition Day.

The 2010-12 Session ran for two years. The decision to extend the length of the session was taken during the session, whereas the Government announced that the current session would run for two years before the Queen’s Speech.