What happens at report stage of a bill
Report stage is when the whole House considers a bill as it emerged from committee, and can amend it further. Formally called consideration, it is the first chance for members who did not sit on the committee to change the text, and in the House of Lords it is the stage at which governments are most often defeated, because the full House is present to vote.
What happens in the Commons
Report stage takes place on the floor of the House. Any MP can table an amendment or a new clause, not just those who served on the public bill committee. The Speaker selects which amendments are debated and groups them by subject, and selection at report is deliberately tighter than at committee: the House’s time goes to genuinely new questions and to the issues left unresolved.
This is also where concessions are delivered. When a minister has promised at committee to look again at an issue, the government amendment that honours the promise is normally tabled at report. Comparing what was promised in the committee record with what appears on the amendment paper at report is one of the more reliable ways to judge whether a government has moved.
Time at report is finite. A major bill’s report stage typically occupies a day or two on the floor under a programme order, and groups of amendments that are not reached before time expires go undebated, a regular source of controversy on heavily amended bills.
One Commons quirk: if a bill was examined by a Committee of the Whole House and left it unamended, there is no report stage at all, and the bill proceeds directly to third reading.
What happens in the Lords
In the Lords, report stage is a full revising stage on the floor of the House. There is no selection of amendments, but the House’s conventions discourage reopening arguments that were fully made and answered at committee: report is for pressing the points that matter, not repeating them.
Because every peer can vote at report, this is where the Lords most often defeats the government on a bill. A defeat does not kill the bill; it sends a changed text onward, and the disagreement is resolved later, when the two Houses exchange amendments.
What happens next
Third reading follows, in the Commons usually immediately after report on the same day. It is the final review of the bill in that House before it passes to the other House, or, if both Houses have now finished with it, towards Royal Assent.
Bills at this stage right now
From official parliamentary data, most recently updated first.
- Financial Services and Markets Bill [HL] · 23 July 2026
- Commercial Payments Bill [HL] · 22 July 2026
- Representation of the People Bill · 21 July 2026
- Health Bill · 20 July 2026
- City of London (Markets) Bill · 16 July 2026
- Courts and Tribunals Bill · 29 June 2026
- Controlled Drugs (Procedure for Specification) Bill · 30 April 2026
- Environmental Targets (Public Authorities) Bill [HL] · 30 April 2026
- Tobacco and Vapes Bill · 21 November 2024
- Criminal Justice Bill · 19 September 2024
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