Back to Business: procedure at the start of a new Parliament (special collection)

Publications / Guides

Back to Business: procedure at the start of a new Parliament (special collection)

13 Dec 2019

At the start of a new Parliament a series of ceremonies and procedures must take place before the Members of the two Houses can get down to business. Our special collection of procedural guides takes you through them, in the order they take place.

Election of House of Commons Speaker
Swearing-in
Queen's Speech and State Opening of Parliament
Election of House of Commons Deputy Speakers
Private Members' Bill ballots
Getting select committees up and running
How long do procedures at the start of a Parliament take?

A new House of Commons cannot carry out any business until it has elected its Speaker. The Speaker election is therefore the first item of business for a new House and takes place on the first day of the new Parliament.

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No MP may take part in any House of Commons proceedings, apart from the election of the Speaker, until he or she has been sworn in. Swearing-in is thus the second item of business in a new House of Commons, once the Speaker has been elected. Swearing-in is normally completed, if not before the Queen’s Speech, then before the start of the debate on it. In the House of Lords, Peers also need to be sworn in at the start of a Parliament.

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The State Opening of Parliament, with the Queen's Speech at its centre, is the key ceremonial and constitutional event at the start of a new session of Parliament. At the start of any session, neither House can consider normal public business until the Queen's Speech has been held.

Each new House of Commons must elect three Deputy Speakers, one from the same side of the House as the Speaker and two from the opposite side. Normally, the Deputy Speakers’ election takes place around four to six sitting days after the Queen’s Speech.

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Each parliamentary session, each House holds a ballot to allocate legislative time-slots to some Members to introduce Private Members’ Bills (PMBs). The PMB ballot in each House is thus another of the events that must take place early in a new Parliament. In the House of Lords, the ballot for Private Members’ Bills takes place on the day following State Opening. A Peer who wishes to enter the ballot must have the full text of his or her bill ready by the time the ballot takes place. In the House of Commons, the ballot usually takes place on the second Thursday of each parliamentary session.

Select committees in both Houses need to be re-populated with Chairs and Members at the start of a Parliament. In the House of Commons, the process of getting select committees fully up and running can take weeks. Most House of Lords select committees are typically re-established much more quickly.

Several of the ceremonies and procedures that take place at the start of a Parliament take place within days or the first 2-3 weeks. However, completing all the processes involved in getting Parliament fully up and running can take months.

Our interactive graphic compares the timings of key events in a new House of Commons at the start of the 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 Parliaments.

The House of Lords moves broadly in tandem with the Commons through the early steps in a new Parliament, but it typically gets most of its select committees up and running much more quickly.

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