Some good changes to Standing Orders

The next Parliament will have some changes to its Standing Orders, and as with previous reviews they are generally positive. Significant changes include:

• A new petitions committee chaired by a presiding officer that will consider petitions and can refer them to specialist committees, or direct to Ministers for a response or even an Ombudsman
• Transfer seven hours of debate time from the (generally pointless) Budget debate to other non-legislative business. This still leaves eight hours for the Budget debate which is more than enough.
• Ability for select committees to have members participate remotely
• More questioning of Ministers during committee stages of Bills by revoking the four call limit
• Automatic introduction of a members’ bill that has 61 non-executive MPs in favour of it. This means non controversial members’ bills can bypass the ballot
• Reduce 90 minute dinner breaks on Tuesday and Wednesday to 60 minutes so house can rise at 5 pm Thursday instead of 6 pm (very useful for flight catching)
• Allow extended sittings on Friday morning for set topic debates or non Government business
• Require select committees to include minority reports as of right
• Allow questions and answers on ministerial statements

One of the more significant revisions. People often think Parliament is all about question time, but in reality a huge amount is done outside that which is constructive and useful towards improving laws and Government performance.