Schedules and new schedules

28.117Schedules to a bill are considered after the new clauses have been disposed of, unless the committee has ordered otherwise. A schedule can be amended and is treated in the same manner as a clause. The final question on a schedule is, ‘That this schedule (as amended) be the (first) schedule to the bill’. Under Standing Order No 68 this question, like the question that a clause stand part of the bill (para 28.114 ), may be put forthwith by the Chair if satisfied that the principle of the schedule and any matters arising from it have already been adequately discussed during debate on the amendments proposed to it.

New schedules may be offered in the same way as new clauses; they are normally considered after any existing schedules. A new schedule is brought up, read the first time and second time, amended, if need be, and added to the bill.1

At the Chair's discretion, schedules or new schedules may be grouped together for discussion along with amendments or clause stand part motions in the same way as amendments (see para 28.102 ). A new schedule may be ruled to be out of order for many of the same reasons as an amendment (see paras 28.105 –28.113 ).

Bills which propose to amend or apply by reference an existing enactment sometimes contain a schedule showing how the enactment will read if the bill becomes an Act, the proposed amendments being printed in heavy type.2 In such a schedule, only consequential amendments which are required to give effect to amendments already inserted in the bill are in order,3 and these may be made consequentially on the direction of the Chair.4