The short title of your bill must describe its content. It should be factual and shouldn’t be a slogan. For example, titles such as “Fairness at Work” and “Modernisation of Justice” have been ruled out. You can use an abbreviation in your bill, but only if it’s very well known, such as NHS.
You should use the long title of the bill to set out the contents of the bill in more detail. The long title should cover everything that will be part of the bill. You can use the phrase “and for connected purposes” to cover any minor related issues that you might leave out of the long title otherwise.
In the case of Ten-Minute Rule Bills, where you might need to claim your slot before you’re sure what your title will be, you can give a ‘holding title’, to the Public Bill Office, but only until five sitting days before you are due to present it. The Public Bill Office can advise on this.
One of the 2017 Ballot Bills had a short title of “Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill” and a long title of:
“Bill to make provision about offences when perpetrated against emergency workers, and persons assisting such workers; to make certain offences aggravated when perpetrated against such workers in the exercise of their duty; to require persons suspected of certain assaults against such workers which may pose a health risk to provide intimate samples and to make it an offence, without reasonable excuse, to refuse to provide such samples; and for connected purposes.”
Your bill must not contain anything that you haven’t stated in the long title, but sometimes amendments can be made at committee stage or report stage that are within the scope of the bill but require a change to the title. This is a complicated area and the Public Bill Office can advise you on it.