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Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Peter Emery (Conservative), on Tuesday, 21 November 1989, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 63 members in total.

Private Bill Procedure

That this House welcomes the constructive statement made on Thursday 9th November by the leader of the House when he stated that he hopes 'to come forward with proposals' regarding the treatment of Private Bills; recognises that this is a complex and difficult subject to which the Joint Committee on Private Bill Procedure and a number of honourable Members have devoted considerable time and effort; regrets that a group of Labour honourable Members have, during the last session, used the existing procedures in such a way as to deprive over twenty organisations, including local authorities, professional bodies and public and private companies, of their right, having presented Private Bills to Parliament of the reasonable expectation of fair treatment to bring their Bill to the Statute Book and not be subjected to blocking tactics that had nothing to do with the merits of their Bill; believes that this behaviour by Labour honourable Members brings Parliament into disrepute; and therefore urges most strongly that Her Majesty's Government should take whatever steps are necessary early in this session of Parliament to ensure that the presenters of Private legislation shall have safeguarded fully their rights to have their petition of parliament properly considered.

Amendments

The Early day motion has received 4 amendments.

1A1
Leave out from 'House' to end and add 'calls for the abolition of Private Bills from this House since all such Bills are a way of buying privileges and should be dealt with through local planning systems or Government sponsored legislation, the additional Parliamentary time thus made available to be used for topical debates and discussion of one report from each Department Select Committee each year.'.
1A2
Leave out from 'regrets' to end and add 'that the Government openly abused the use of Private Bills in the last Session of Parliament by operating an unofficial whipping system for Private Bills which they favoured, notably the Associated British Ports (No. 2) Bill and the North Killingholme Cargo Terminal Bill.'.
1A3
At end add, 'and, to this end, urges that an omnibus revival motion be tabled so as to permit the aforesaid Bills to proceed.'.
1A4
Leave out from 'treatment' to end and add 'whilst recognising that Bills of contentious character should be allowed to avoid a Report stage when the Committee stage could not be said to have produced unanamity of approval.'.

Secondary information

Type
Early day motion
Reference
1 
1A1 
1A2 
1A3 
1A4 
Session
1989-90
Subjects
Legislative process Private bills Joint Committee on Private Bill Procedure
Link
View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk