Campaign for Home Education

http://freedomforchildrentogrow.org

Monday 1 March

New Ideas on Writing to the House of Lords

The first significant date for the House of Lords is Monday March 8th when the Bill receives its Second Reading, which gives peers the opportunity to begin debating the main principles and purpose of the Bill and to flag up concerns and areas where they think changes (amendments) are needed.

Members of the House of Lords can put their name down to speak at Second Reading. More information can be found here at the Whips Office.

It is imperative that the Government's proposed legislation receives scrutiny in the House of Lords since the House of Commons has been subject to a strict guillotine motion or "programme order" which greatly restricted time for debate.

Perhaps the most striking difference between the Commons and the Lords is that debate in the Lords may not be rushed "by order" in the same way as the Commons. Another difference between the Commons and the Lords is that the Committee stage in the Lords takes place on the floor of the House of Lords and is open to all members of the House.

Lord Lucas says:

"After Second Reading comes Committee, when the whole house (meaning those who take an interest) go through the Bill line by line. What we will need for this stage are suggestions for amendments... our strengths are more in grinding the government down gradually with practical arguments than cutting them down with politics. So do send in your ideas for amendments, as we can put them down straight after Second Reading."

None of the opposition amendments went through at Committee. Committee members then put forward amendments for Report stage including an amendment signed by 25 MPs to leave out the home education part of the Bill. There was no time to debate any of these amendments at Report which means that these amendments can and should be debated in the House of Lords.

Read more at our newly updated information page about writing to members of the House of Lords.