How the Parliament Act will be invoked

Last updated at 11:01 18 November 2004


Commons Speaker Michael Martin will today certify that the controversial Hunting Bill falls within the scope of the Parliament Act 1949 and request Her Majesty's Royal Assent to the legislation.

This is how the sequence of events will unfold at Westminster, on the last day of the current session of parliament:

At 12.30pm MPs will begin a debate on the Bill, to consider the Lords' amendments to it.

The by-now familiar arguments will be rehearsed and amendments will be tabled to delete the changes made to the Bill in the Upper House.

That will restore the proposed legislation to the form in which it left the Commons, banning hunting with dogs, hare coursing and stag hunting within three months from Royal Assent.

With emotions running high on the issue, security will be as tight as ever at Westminster - uniformed police were posted outside the Commons press gallery entrance to the chamber for the last debate - and business managers are braced for attempts at procedural trickery.

After the debate this afternoon, and any necessary votes, Speaker Martin is expected to make a brief statement to MPs - though this is not strictly necessary.

If he does, he will tell them that the Bill having passed twice through the Commons within one year, and having been rejected by the Lords, it falls within the scope of the Parliament Act 1949 and therefore will be sent to the sovereign for her assent.

The Bill does not pass back to the Lords.

The process of the Parliament Act is an automatic one and requires no Government action or motion of the House.

After a short delay the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer makes a prorogation speech in the Upper House listing the measures Her Majesty's Government has enacted.

Included in that list, finally, will be the Hunting Act and after its announcement a clerk will pronounce, in Norman French: "La Reyne le veult" - the Queen wills it.

That, however, is unlikely to be the end of the legislative controversy. Hunting supporters have promised a legal challenge to the use of the 1949 Parliament Act, saying it is invalid because it was never itself passed by the House of Lords.

The Human Rights Act may also be used as the basis for a legal challenge by the pro-hunting lobby.

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