HOUSE OF LORDS - United Kingdom Parliament

understandable without reference to other documents (with the
exception of Hansard).
Question time
6.23 Question time in the House of Lords takes place at the start of
business on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Question
time may not exceed 30 minutes. 1
6.24 In December 2009 the House agreed, on a trial basis, that
Secretaries of State sitting in the House of Lords should each, on one
Thursday each month, answer three oral questions addressed to them in
their ministerial capacity. 2 These questions to Secretaries of State take
place immediately after oral questions, and last for up to 15 minutes.
Arrangements for selecting such questions, by ballot, are described
below. Except where indicated in the following paragraphs, the
procedure for Secretary of State’s questions is identical to that for normal
oral questions.
Tabling oral questions
6.25 Oral questions, marked * in House of Lords Business, are asked
for information only, and not with a view to stating an opinion, making a
speech or raising a debate; 3
oral questions may be tabled up to one month, including recesses,
in advance of the date on which they are to be asked (e.g. a
question to be asked on 12 April may not be tabled before
12 March);
no oral question may be tabled less than 24 hours before the start
of the sitting at which it is due to be asked (or after 2.30 p.m. on
Friday for Monday);
the number of oral questions is limited to four;
no member of the House may have more than one oral question
on the order paper at any one time, 4 but topical questions and
1 Procedure 1st Rpt 1990–91.
2 Procedure 1st Rpt 2009–10.
3 SO 34.
4 Procedure 1st Rpt 1998–99.
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