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Title

Ch8 Order of business and the sitting day / ADJOURNMENT / Standing orders provisions / Automatic adjournment

Database

House Practice

Date

01-05-2005

Source

House of Reps

Parl No.

41

Chapter

Order of business and the sitting day

Chapter No.

Chapter 08

Page

263

Section No.

 

System Id

procedural/practcer/chapter08.55.doc


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Ch8 Order of business and the sitting day / ADJOURNMENT / Standing orders provisions / Automatic adjournment



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House of Representatives                                Ch 8                                                 p 263

 

Order of business and the sitting day / ADJOURNMENT / Standing orders provisions

 

Automatic adjournment

Standing order 31 provides that at 9 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays, at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesdays and at 4.30 p.m. on Thursdays, the Speaker shall propose the question ‘That the House do now adjourn’. The question is open to debate but no amendment can be moved to it.

Other provisions relating to the automatic adjournment are:

  • If a division is in progress at the time fixed for interruption, that division and any division consequent on that division are completed and the result announced.

  • If, on the question ‘That the House do now adjourn’ being proposed, a Minister requires the question to be put immediately without debate, the Speaker puts the question immediately. This provision provides the House with an opportunity to negative the adjournment in order to continue with the business before the House.

  • If the question ‘That the House do now adjourn’ is negatived, the House resumes its proceedings at the point at which they were interrupted.

  • The business under discussion and not disposed of at the time of the automatic adjournment is set down on the Notice Paper for the next sitting.

    • The question has arisen of the situation of a Member who is making a statement, by leave, at the time of interruption. Leave of the House does not over-ride the provision in the standing orders for the automatic adjournment, and the adjournment motion must be proposed at the specified time. If the motion is negatived, the Member can then continue his or her remarks, 1 but not otherwise. 2 The same applies if standing orders are suspended to enable a Member to make a statement. Unless standing order 31 has been specifically suspended, the statement is interrupted at the specified time and the Member is only able to continue if the adjournment motion is negatived. A Member raising a matter of privilege at the time of interruption has been in a similar situation—his or her speech was interrupted and then resumed on the adjournment question being put immediately and negatived. 3

    The making of a statement by leave or a Member speaking to a matter of public importance do not fall within the meaning of business under standing order 31. As there is no question before the House, these items cannot be set down on the Notice Paper for the next sitting.

    If a motion, such a motion to suspend standing orders, is being moved, or has been moved but has not yet been seconded (where necessary) at the time of interruption,  the question has not been proposed from the Chair. If the adjournment is not negatived at this point, the motion is not in the possession of the House, and it is therefore dropped and cannot appear on the Notice Paper ( see ‘Motion dropped’ in Chapter on ‘Motions’).

    Standing and sessional orders have been suspended, by leave, to enable the debate to extend beyond the normal time, 4 or to a specified time. 5



    VP 1977/72.



    H.R. Deb. (22.2.79) 334.



    VP 1996-98/2100.



     E.g. VP 1993-95/2567-8.



    E.g. VP 2002-04/1508-9.