There's a row in the #HouseofCommons about a Delegated Legislation Committee (DLC). Which is not something that happens very often - but in this case *is* something that shows why the current delegated legislation system is broken & needs fixing. 🧵1/ The row is over the Postal Packets (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2023. These are in a Statutory Instrument that's subject to the 'affirmative' procedure i.e. it needs debating & approving. It's 1 of the series of SIs implementing the #WindsorFramework on the UK side. 2/

re: #care cap in #HealthAndCareBill, procedural point is that gov is trying to make significant unforced policy change by introducing an am. to its own Bill *at report stage* i.e. *after* committee stage, when detailed #scrutiny is - in #HouseofCommons - supposed to happen. 1/6 #HealthAndCareBill committee stage finished 2/11, but gov only introduced its amendment 18/11. Gov may point, rightly, to fact that report stage is now 2 days (original plan was only 1). But this is no substitute for committee stage, when a committee can take expert evidence. 2/6

Quick update thread on the status in Parliament of #LordFrost, as there have been developments this week & there'll be more tomorrow (Mon 15/3). #Brexit #NIProtocol 1/7 To recap: House of Lords rescinded Lord Frost's leave of absence, early, when he started his ministerial job on 1/3. There are Qs re: process (behind-the-scenes agreement not publicly-taken decision of whole House) but this allowed him to participate in HoL business, so: good. 2/

Ahead of publication of UK's objectives for its future relationship #negotiations with the EU, & of normal Thurs @HouseofCommons #BusinessQuestions this AM, a quick thread on some aspects of where we are on #Parliament side of things. 1/ 1st, remember that, 'cos of way UK does treaties, gov is under no obligation to publish what it's publishing today. UK gov is under no obligation to tell Parl anything about treaties it's negotiating unless & until they need domestic implementing legislation +/or ratification. 2/

Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg has told the HoC that the gov plans to get the Committee & all other Commons stages of the #WAB done in 3 days, 7-9 Jan. In other words, exactly the same no. of days as the previous House refused to do it in. 1/ Assuming the House gives the #WAB a 2nd Reading tomorrow, Fri 20/12, it will then be asked to approve a programme motion containing this 3-day timetable for Jan. (This, of course, is where the previous House said 'no' on 22 Oct.) 2/

If people are just seeing news re: Beckett/Grieve ams tabled to so-called '#estimates', we flagged this summer's estimates process in a recent piece - see below. (Short thread) 1/ The Beckett/Grieve ams are tabled to the motions to authorise the 2019-20 spending of depts whose estimates have been chosen by the Backbench Business C'tee for separate debate & vote (this yr, 4 depts - DFID, DoE, DWP, HCLG). Motions & ams are here: 2/ publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cm…

People may be gathering that there's new anti-no-deal Brexitry afoot in the House of Commons tomorrow (Weds 12/6) so here's a quick thread re: what's going on in terms of HoC procedure in case it's useful. 1/ Tomorrow (Weds 12/6) in the HoC is a so-called Opposition Day. Normally, the government decides what the Commons will debate & vote on. On Opposition Days, an opposition party does. 2/

In voting on the #CooperBill, HoC has just agreed without division to amend the EU (Withdrawal) Act so that a future Statutory Instrument to amend 'exit day' in UK law would be subject to the negative scrutiny procedure, rather than the affirmative procedure as under original Act Essentially, *if* #CooperBill becomes law with this amendment intact, this means a minister will be able to change 'exit day' under the EU(W)A unless either House objects. Currently, under the original EU(W)A, a minister can change 'exit day' only with the approval of both Houses

Haven't seen anyone on here run thru' the options on the Order Paper for HoC #indicativevotes tomorrow (Mon 1/4), so, for your info... (apologies if people have & I've missed it): There are 8 motions tabled for possible selection by Speaker: 1/ A) Baron, unilateral backstop exit; B) Baron, if no WA by then, no-deal Brexit on 12/4; C) Clarke, permanent UK-wide Customs Union as UK negotiating objective in primary legislation; 2/

OK, I've caught up with Twitter again & there's both some v. interesting exchanges & still a fair bit of apparent wider public confusion re: the date UK leaves the EU, A50 #extension & the SI to change 'exit day'. So, in interests of end-of-the-week clarity, here's another go. 1/ The date UK leaves the EU is an intl matter. It's not determined by whatever UK domestic law may say.Changing 'exit day' in UK law doesn't change date UK leaves the EU. See posts this wk by @woodstockjag & @DomWalsh13 as well as me, & eg @ProfMarkElliott & @carlgardner on here 2/

We all know there's uncertainty over how MPs will vote on #Brexit this week. Thought it might be handy just to flag why there's also uncertainty over exactly what & when they're voting on (nerdy procedure thread....) 1/ First, a reminder of the position in law: unless something happens in the A50 process (that is, Withdrawal Agreement [WA] is ratified or A50 period is extended), the UK by law leaves the EU on 29/3 without a Withdrawal Agreement in force. 2/

Just tuning belatedly into Ivan Rogers up at @LordsEUCom & hear, re: trade negs, "secrecy doesn't work ... [&] ... has been a serious mistake in the current process". &, "What is UK trade policy?" - debate re: tariffs "needs to be had in both Houses" #Brexit @DavidHenigUK Ivan Rogers tells @LordsEUCom that chief negotiator for next round of negs w/ EU should be in No10/Cabinet Office. Shouldn't be DExEU. Bases view on Q of trust: chief negotiator has to be trusted across Whitehall, by all depts, & not seen as having dept'mental skin in the game

& so it comes to pass. Unamended gov motion defeated 258-303 #BrexitNextSteps

https://twitter.com/Brigid_Fowler/status/1095746587836510208

if it helps people understand what's going on, one way I thought of thinking of it is that, on 29 Jan, one HoC majority voted for, say, 'blue'. And a different HoC maj voted for 'yellow'. Today's gov motion said 'green'. But there isn't a majority for that.

OK, I've now read the transcript of today's debate & since the Constitutional Reform & Governance Act 2010 (CRaG Act) seems to have hit the headlines & there's a degree of confusion around, a thread just to clarify (I hope): 1/ The CRaG Act says that a treaty that needs ratifying must be laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days, without the House of Commons resolving against its ratification, before the gov may ratify it. 2/

A member of @LordsEUCom just asked Brexit Sec Stephen Barclay *when* the gov will decide that it's gone as far as it can with the Withdrawal Agreement & *when* we're going to know what's happening; we got 'gov isn't running down clock & wants to get deal asap' @jonworth Re: #Brexit legislation Stephen Barclay tells @LordsEUCom that in case of *deal* timing is “challenging”; prospects depend partly on parliamentarians' attitudes - does everyone accept that deal is happening & needs legislating for, rather than engaging in more guerrilla tactics

re-upping this - on gov's 21/1 #Brexit written statement yesterday eve - since not sure the news has cut thru'. Key points as I understand it: 1/

https://twitter.com/Brigid_Fowler/status/1087427589424189440

i) Gov will make *another* Brexit written statement by Thurs this wk (24/1), this time under EU(W)A s13(11), which may or may not say s'thing substantive;
ii) the s13(6) motion currently down on Order Paper, expected to be debated 29/1, is *not* the motion that will be debated 2/

As this got some pick-up, some caution: Grieve am. reported today is leaked text; might still be work-in-progress. MPs can't table ams. to PM's main motion for 29/1 until she's tabled it on 21/1. Exact what/how of 29/1 debate may well only be clear that AM

https://twitter.com/Brigid_Fowler/status/1086617766608756737

OK, to pick this up again: Grieve on R4 #bbcbh now has said he & Nick Boles are "working along exactly the same lines" to give HoC control of its own business for 1 day during which it might debate motion(s) &/or legislation. 1/

In case it's useful (& with apologies to those of you who don't need it), a quick Sat lunchtime reminder of the absolute basics ahead of the #meaningfulvote on Tues ('cos it may be handy to cling onto them amid what's about to go down) 1/ In terms of UK's #Brexit process, the only Q at issue on Tues is whether HoC approves Withdrawal Agreement & Pol. Dec. *By law* (EU [Withdrawal] Act 2018 s13(1)(b)), UK may not ratify the WA unless & until (among other things) HoC has approved the WA+PD in a s13(1)(b) motion. 2/

Quick thread on what yesterday's Grieve am. to #meaningfulvote business motion could mean for immediate #Brexit steps, to inject note of caution re: some apparent assumptions. TLDR: spirit of the am. is clearly to move things along, but letter of it seems to leave loopholes. 1/ Might be handy to have text of section 13 of EU (Withdrawal) Act (but you're also carrying your copy around with you, right? 🙄) 2/
legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/16/…