You can submit amendments at three different stages of a bill’s progress:
- committee stage
- report stage
- when a bill has been amended by the Lords and returned to the Commons for consideration of Lords amendments
You can submit the same amendment at report stage as you did at committee stage, but it’s up to the Speaker to choose whether to select it for debate. The Speaker might decide that the issue has already been fully discussed.
Amendments submitted by backbenchers are unlikely to be made, but can be used as a way of holding a debate on an issue and establishing the Government’s intentions (this type of amendment is sometimes called a probing amendment).
The Government can submit amendments to their own bills.