HOUSE OF LORDS - United Kingdom Parliament

second reading. 1 Such bills are not committed unless those Orders have
been complied with or dispensed with. 2
Instructions
9.29 Instructions to committees on private bills may be moved at any
time between the second reading and committee stage of the bill, but are
usually put down for the same day as the second reading. The Chairman
of Committees should be informed before an instruction is tabled. 3
9.30 Permissive instructions enable the committee to do what it could
not do without such an instruction. However, any enlargement of the
scope of a bill should be effected by a petition for additional provision
rather than such an instruction. Mandatory instructions compel the
committee to do something which it already has discretion to do.
However, the House has been reluctant to agree to any instruction which
will restrict the decisions of the committee.
9.31 The most usual type of instruction on a private bill is of a
cautionary nature. For example, the committee is sometimes instructed
to have regard to certain matters or to ensure that various objections
have been considered. An instruction of this nature is often accepted by
the House, as it ensures that the committee considers matters which
might not be raised by the parties appearing before it or in a
departmental report.
9.32 To assist them in carrying out an instruction, committees have on
occasion been given power by the House to hear evidence other than
that tendered by the parties entitled to be heard. This expedient,
however, is open to criticism: it may enable a person to oppose a bill
without having petitioned against it, and there is no fund out of which the
fees of any expert witness may be paid.
9.33 Instructions have occasionally been given to an unopposed bill
committee.
9.34 It is customary for the committee to make a special report to the
House upon matters referred to in an instruction.
1 PBSOs 62–68.
2 PBSO 100.
3 PBSO 93.
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