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House of Representatives                                Ch 11                                                 p 427

Consideration in detail

The order of consideration of taxation bills at this stage, as with appropriation or supply bills, differs from ordinary non-amending bills in that, when the bill is considered clause by clause, any schedule is considered before the authorising clauses. ¹

No Member, other than a Minister or Parliamentary Secretary, may move an amendment to increase or extend the scope of the charge proposed beyond the total already existing under any Acts of Parliament. ² A Member prevented by the standing orders from moving an amendment may still wish to propose it, even though it will be ruled out of order. Alternatively, the Member may choose to express the matter in general terms in a second reading amendment, or to read into the Hansard record the text of the amendment he or she would have liked to move. ³ An amendment to reduce the tax imposed by a bill would be in order and thus, in moving an amendment to a government bill a private Member may do what he or she cannot do by introducing a private Member’s bill—that is, propose the alleviation of a tax. ⁴ An amendment to a customs tariff proposal which sought to impose a duty on a date sooner than that stated in the legislative proposal, thereby having the effect of producing an additional sum (charge) from customs duties, has been ruled out of order. ⁵

S.O. 149(d).

S.O. 179(b)(c). For a comment on this restriction on private Members see H.R. Deb. (15.5.80) 2873.

E.g. H.R. Deb. (29.5.2002) 2586.

E.g. VP 1993-95/2133-5.

VP 1926-28/481.