Talk:Arbitration Act 1979

The DYK hook
This is a bit misleading. The Arbitration Bill was referred to a Second Reading Committee on 5 March; the Committee debated on 14 March and recommended that the Bill get its Second Reading. The House gave the Bill a formal Second Reading on 16 March and committed it to Standing Committee B. That was where the Bill was when the Government fell; the Government obtained consent of the Opposition to rush it through in the wash-up period and a business statement on 29 March announced that all remaining Commons stages would be on 2 April. This last took place on the day the Prime Minister sought and obtained a dissolution, but the Prime Minister had been to see the Queen in the morning and the business statement was in the afternoon. The next procedure was to recall the Bill from the Standing Committee (30 March) and then the remaining stages were held on 2 April as arranged. This was after a dissolution had been obtained. The Prime Minister did not actually resign until 4 May (the day after the general election, by which time the Arbitration Act 1979 was already on the statute book. Sam Blacketer (talk) 22:30, 9 November 2010 (UTC)