Annex E: Form of amendments
Presiding Officer determination (Public and Private Bills): Form of amendments
Reproduced from Business Bulletin No. 65/2001, 25 April 2001
The Presiding Officer has determined, under Rules 9.10.1 and 9A.12.1 of the Standing Orders, that the form of amendments to Bills is as follows.
Each amendment shall propose only one change to the text of the Bill; and each amendment to an amendment shall propose only one change to the text of that amendment.
No amendment shall leave out or insert more than one section of, or schedule to, the Bill.
Amendments to leave out sections of, or schedules to, the Bill shall be in the form “Leave out section/schedule x”; and amendments to substitute new such sections or schedules for existing ones shall be in the form “Leave out section/schedule x and insert— [text of new section/schedule]”.
Amendments to insert new sections or schedules in the Bill shall normally be in the form “Before/After section/schedule x, insert— [text of new section/schedule]”
Amendments to existing sections of, or schedules to, the Bill shall normally begin “In section/schedule x, page y, line z, …” and shall be to “leave out”, “leave out and insert” or “insert” blocks of text or words.
In all amendments, words in the Bill referred to and text to be included in the Bill shall be framed with angle brackets (e.g. after <word> insert <words>).
Amendments to leave out whole subsections of, or paragraphs of schedules to, the Bill shall do so by reference to those subsections or paragraphs, but amendments to leave out other defined blocks of text shall do so by reference to lines. Amendments to leave out words shall do so by reference to those words or, where appropriate, by reference to the first and last words to be left out.
In amendments to leave out words and insert new words, the first or last words to be inserted shall not normally be the same as the first or last words to be left out.
No amendment shall leave out or insert any item of text smaller than a word.
Amendments to insert blocks of text into the Bill shall set out those blocks of text in the form in which they would appear in the Bill, except that blocks of text that would, if part of the Bill, be numbered shall either be un-numbered in the amendment or numbered so as not to require re-numbering of existing provisions of the Bill.
Amendments to the long title shall begin “In the long title, page x, line y, …”.
Amendments to amendments shall begin “As an amendment to amendment x, …” and shall, where appropriate, refer to the text to be amended by reference to subsection, schedule paragraph or line.