Standing Orders are described as “orders made by either House of Parliament for the government and regulation of its proceedings and declared by that House to be standing orders.” Orders of this description do not expire with the session in which they are made, but remain in force until they are vacated or repealed by the House by which they are made. If it is intended that an order shall be a standing order, it is at once declared to be such, but an order of a resolution of a previous session of Parliament is sometimes revived and declared to be a standing order.

Standing orders are sometimes suspended by order of the House either temporarily or for a particular purpose. Notice is usually required of a motion to suspend a standing order.

Some orders and resolutions are in practice observed and held good in succeeding sessions and by different Parliaments without having been turned into standing orders, e.g. the rule against smoking in the House.

In neither House do the standing orders provide a complete code of procedure. Much of the procedure of both Houses is governed by custom and precedent, supplemented by rulings from the Presiding Officer.

View the Standing Orders

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