HOUSE OF LORDS - United Kingdom Parliament

formally; 1 Finance Bills are usually debated on second reading and their
subsequent stages taken formally.
8.199 When these bills have been passed by the Lords, they are
returned to the Commons if Royal Assent is to be signified by
Commission, and are brought up by the Speaker and receive Royal
Assent before, and in a different form from, all other bills. 2
8.200 A supply bill may, or may not, be certified as a “money bill” within
the meaning of s. 1(2) of the Parliament Act 1911. Finance Bills, which are
supply bills, are frequently not certified as money bills.
Separate subjects
8.201 The right of the Lords to reject a supply bill includes the right to
omit supply provisions from a bill when such provisions form a “separate
subject” from the general object of the bill, which the Lords are
otherwise entitled to amend.
8.202 For example the Lords amended Part III of the Land Commission
Bill 1966–67 (which provided for a betterment levy). The Lords amended
the part in committee although it concerned supply, but then left it out in
its entirety on third reading, since it would have been an infringement of
Commons financial privilege to return the bill with that part concerning
supply amended. This gave the Commons the opportunity to restore the
entire separate subject to the bill with amendments, including some of
the Lords amendments made in committee.
Tacking
8.203 Commons financial privilege debars the Lords from amending
supply bills. In order that the Commons should not abuse their financial
privilege by including in such bills provisions unconnected with supply, the
Lords passed a resolution in 1702 condemning the abuse of “tacking”. It
is now embodied in SO 52. 3
1 Procedure 3rd Rpt 1992–93.
2 See appendix F, page 244.
3 LJ (1701–05) 185.
165