What is ping pong? Consideration of amendments explained
Ping pong is the informal name for the final stage of a UK bill’s passage, when the two Houses exchange amendments until both have agreed exactly the same text. A bill cannot become law while the Commons and the Lords disagree about a single word of it, so amendments pass back and forth, each House considering the other’s changes, until one gives way or the bill runs out of time.
How the exchange works
When the second House amends a bill, it returns to the first House, which considers each amendment and can agree to it, disagree with reasons, or propose an alternative, known as an amendment in lieu. The bill then travels back for the other House to respond in the same way. On the parliamentary order paper these rounds appear as consideration of Lords amendments in the Commons and consideration of Commons amendments in the Lords.
Most rounds are short. The Lords typically sees its role as asking the elected House to think again, not to block it indefinitely, so a single exchange in which the Commons accepts some changes and reverses others, often softened by concessions, settles most bills. A hard-fought bill can take several rounds, and each round narrows the dispute to fewer and fewer points.
How it ends
The exchange ends in one of three ways. Usually the Houses converge: concessions are offered, amendments in lieu are accepted, and both Houses agree an identical text, which then proceeds to Royal Assent. Sometimes the bill runs out of time and falls at the end of the session. And by convention, if each House insists on its position twice over with no compromise offered, the bill is lost, which is precisely why outright double insistence is rare.
The backstop: the Parliament Acts
Behind the negotiation sits a statutory backstop. Under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, most public bills that started in the Commons can ultimately be presented for Royal Assent without the Lords’ agreement, if the Commons passes the same bill in two successive sessions with a year between second reading in the first session and passing in the second. It is used sparingly: the Hunting Act 2004 is the most recent example. A bill certified by the Speaker as a money bill can receive assent after just one month in the Lords, and a bill to extend the life of a Parliament is excluded from the Acts entirely.
What to watch during ping pong
Watch the government’s amendments in lieu: they are the concessions, and they show what the government has decided it must give away to get the bill through. By this stage the question is no longer whether the bill passes but what its final text costs.
Bills at this stage right now
From official parliamentary data, most recently updated first.
Related guides
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