Essay About Recent House Of Representatives Practice And Adjournment Debates

The House of Commons
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The House of Commons has recently provided for adjournment debates on
Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Five debate subjects are usually provided for on
each day, with two 90-minute debates, followed by three half-hour debates. This is
similar to the recent House of Representatives practice of permitting “Morning Hour”
debates on certain days of the week, for periods not to exceed ninety minutes.
The House of Representatives long-standing custom of permitting, at the
Speakers discretion, one-minute speeches at the beginning of a session day seems
to have no analog in the House of Commons.
Parliamentary Questions
On four meeting days each week, Cabinet Ministers respond to oral questions
from rank-and-file MPs. The practice has never been adopted in the House of
Representatives, although proposals for experimental use of a question period have
been offered periodically in Congress. All Cabinet Ministers are expected to
participate in the oral question process on a regularly scheduled basis, and the Prime
Minister now appears at noon on Wednesdays for 30 minutes. The Leader of the
Opposition is entitled to offer six questions to the Prime Minister during this period,
and the leader of the second-largest opposition party, two.
MPs who wish to ask questions for oral answer submit their questions two
weeks in advance of a ministers scheduled appearance. A drawing is held to
determine which questions will be asked in which order, although only a few will
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