Parliamentary ping-pong is a phrase used to describe a phenomenon in the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

, in which a bill appears to rapidly bounce back and forth between the two chambers like a

ping-pong ball Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

bounces between the players in a game of

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Procedure

The British parliament is

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...

, consisting of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

and the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

. Before a

Bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

can receive the

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

and become law, it must be passed in its final form by both the Commons and the Lords without changes. If one of the Houses makes any change or amendment to it, the other House has to agree to those changes, or make counter-changes of its own (such as reverting to the previous text), in which case it returns to the other House. The debates in each House are usually scheduled weeks or months apart. However, in certain circumstances when there is time pressure, this process can be sped up to less than six hours per chamber. If the two Houses continue to disagree, the process repeats, so the Bill bounces back and forth between the two chambers like a ping-pong ball, until one side backs down or a compromise is found. Usually the time limit is imposed by the end of the

Parliamentary session A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two elections ...

when all parliamentary business, including incomplete Bills, is ended and must start again from scratch in the next session. This usually occurs at the

State Opening of Parliament The State Opening of Parliament is a ceremonial event which formally marks the beginning of a session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It includes a speech from the throne known as the King's (or Queen's) Speech. The event takes place ...

in November; parliament can continue working on the previous year's business up to the night before. Another instance is the

wash-up period {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The wash-up period is the last few days while a Parliament of the United Kingdom continues to sit after the Prime Minister has announced the date when Parliament will be dissolved so a general election can be held ...

of a few days between the calling of a

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

and the ensuing

dissolution of parliament The dissolution of a legislative assembly is the mandatory simultaneous resignation of all of its members, in anticipation that a successive legislative assembly will reconvene later with possibly different members. In a democracy, the new assemb ...

. More rarely, the time limit may be imposed by outside events, such as an impending deadline from a

court order A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out o ...

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

, or events in

foreign affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

Example

An extreme example of parliamentary ping-pong involved the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2005. Over the course of 30 hours on 10–11 March 2005, the bill was considered five times by the Lords and four times by the Commons. The need for legislation, and associated time pressure, arose from the court case ''

A v Secretary of State for the Home Department ''A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department'/nowiki> UKHL 56] (also known as the ''Belmarsh 9'' case) is a UK human rights case heard before the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, House of Lords. It held that the indefini ...

''. Ten individuals suspected of terrorism had been indefinite detention, detained indefinitely under Part IV of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. Nine of them appealed against their imprisonment; in December 2004 the

Law Lords Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

(then the

court of last resort A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

in the UK) granted the appeal, on the grounds that Part IV was incompatible with the

Human Rights Act 1998 The Human Rights Act 1998 (c. 42) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 9 November 1998, and came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim was to incorporate into UK law the rights contained in the European Con ...

. The suspects were not freed immediately, as existing powers allowed terrorism suspects to be detained up to 90 days without

charge Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...

. The judgment effectively set a deadline of 14 March 2005 for Parliament to pass alternative legislation which could be applied to the suspects without violating their human rights. In response to the judgment, the government proposed to create

control order A control order is an order made by the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom to restrict an individual's liberty for the purpose of "protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism". Its definition and power were provided by Parliament in ...

s, which could be applied to the suspects. The bill necessary to introduce these powers was tabled in the House of Commons on 22 February 2005. The bill passed in the Commons, then the Lords amended it to include a

sunset clause In public policy, a sunset provision or sunset clause is a measure within a statute, regulation or other law that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law ...

, which the Commons did not agree with. As Parliament would not be sitting over the weekend of 12–13 March, the legislation had to be completed by the end of Friday 11 March. With the deadline approaching, the bill began to ping-pong between the two Houses. The timetable was: *10 March 2005 ** House of Lords — 11:31am to 3:00pm ** House of Commons — 6:00pm to 7:37pm ** House of Lords — 10:15pm to 11:26pm *11 March 2005 ** House of Commons — 1:20am to 2:39am ** House of Lords — 5:00am to 5:56am ** House of Commons — 8:00am to 9:13am ** House of Lords — 11:40am to 1:11pm ** House of Commons — 3:30pm to 4:00pm ** House of Lords — 6:30pm to 7:00pm A compromise was eventually agreed, involving annual reviews of the law rather than a full sunset clause. Both Houses then passed the bill, which received

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

at 7:20pm on 11 March 2005.

Other recent examples

Trade Act 2021 The Trade Act 2021 (c. 10) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make provision about the implementation of international trade agreements. It was introduced to the House of Commons on 19 March 2020 by the Secretary of State for ...

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (also known as the Great Repeal Act) is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provides both for repeal of the European Communities Act 1972 (UK), European Communities A ...

Alternative Vote debate
in February 2011
ID Cards debate
in March 2006
House of Commons
an
House of Lords
transcripts for 10 March 2005.
Education Bill
in July 2002

References

{{reflist Parliament of the United Kingdom

Procedure

Example

Other recent examples

See also

References