Laying before the house

In parliamentary procedure, especially the Westminster system, a document is laid before the house or Laid on the Table of the House when it is formally recognised as having been made available for members of a deliberative assembly to read.[1] Documents produced by official bodies or in response to orders from parliament are required to be laid before the house.[1] These documents inform members in their deliberations.

Originally, a physical copy of the document was placed on the table in the assembly chamber.[1] This is no longer the case, with statutes and rules of order determining the mode by which a document is recognised as having been laid.[2][3][4] Some such documents are published, as for example the command papers issued by the UK Parliament.[2] Others may not be published.[2] Electronic publishing is common for documents laid in recent decades.[5] Parliamentary privilege may extend to documents published.[2][6] The Irish Department of Finance guidelines state, "It should be especially noted that documents to be laid before the Houses of Oireachtas must not be published before being so laid. A breach of this direction is a serious infringement of parliamentary privilege."[7]

Sources

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 "Laid or laying (before Parliament)". Glossary. UK Parliament. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Guidance and requirements for laying papers before the House of Commons and their publication" (PDF). Journal Office. April 2009. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  3. ↑ "Houses of the Oireachtas (Laying of Documents) Act, 1966". Irish Statute Book. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "Laying of Documents Before Parliament (Interpretation) Act 1948". UK Statute Law Database. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Laying of Documents before the Houses of the Oireachtas - Frequently Asked Questions". Oireachtas. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "Chapter 14: Laying and Publication of Documents". Parliamentary Business. Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  7. ↑ Department of the Taoiseach 2006, §4

External links


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