Strategic Choices
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6.4. Parliamentary Business
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Data Model
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Parliamentary Business
Data model
The following reports are part of the parliamentary Information System:
| Functional Identifier | Function | |
| Calendar | 1. | Programme of Parliamentary Business |
| 1. | Weekly Schedule | |
| 1. | Order Paper |
Programme of Parliamentary Business
The Clerk prepares the Programme of Parliamentary Business each week and distributes the same to all members. This report lists all the business of the House that has been scheduled for the following week. The programme of parliamentary business is generated out of the information available in the session calendar, motions, and questions repositories.
The system should facilitate preparation of the "Programme of Parliamentary Business". This Programme of Parliamentary Business will be published on the Internet and notification of the publishing sent to all members of Parliament by e-mail and/or sms.
Weekly Schedule
The "Weekly Schedule" lists the questions that will be placed in the Order Paper for each sitting day of the following week. The Clerk prepares this weekly report listing the questions that will be placed in the Order Paper for each sitting day of the following week and it is normally forwarded to all the Ministries.
System should have template for preparing "Week Schedule" and it should allow the Clerk to quickly and easily create, validate, and publish "Week Schedule" documents without reentering "Questions" that has already been entered elsewhere in the system i.e. the system must generate the schedule out of the list of pending & scheduled questions.
Order Paper
The "Order Paper" (otherwise referred to as the Orders of the Day) is a report specifying the agenda for a particular House sitting.
It is the House Business Committee that decides what business is to be transacted by the House on each sitting day and the Clerk prepares the "Order Paper" and ensures that it is circulated as early as possible before the House meets.
The Speaker may occasionally dispose of business in a sequence other than that specified in the Order Paper for the convenience of the House. This will normally occur when there is an urgent matter of national importance to be debated e.g. an outbreak of a fatal disease.
The Order Paper is generally split into the following sections (this division is purely indicative, each country may have different structures:
- Matters other than business
- Administration of Oath
- Communication from the Chair
- Petitions
- Papers
- Notices of Motion
- Questions of which notice has been given
- Business of the House
- Motions
- Bills
The Clerk may produce a supplementary Order Paper to replace the initial order paper when required, especially by the Government.
The system should assist the Clerk to prepare the "Order Paper" by providing a template for the order paper. The information will have to be retrieved from the system and/or from the Programme of Parliamentary Business and allow the necessary updating that may be required. Order Papers must be saved within the system (a chronological history of Order Papers must be available), and once completed the Order Paper must be published on the parliamentary intranet. A notification must be sent to the members of the house, with a link to the order paper. The Speaker may occasionally dispose of business in a sequence other than that specified in the "Order Paper" for the convenience of the House. Such changes should be reflected in the published information.
The system should have provision to create and publish a supplementary "Order Paper" to amend the initial order paper when required. An amendment may be necessitated by a complaint from a member disputing the wording of a motion or question or by a change in Government priorities. In the latter circumstance, the Leader of Government Business or his/her deputy would authorize the production of a supplementary "Order Paper".
The Order Paper, the Weekly schedule and the Programme of Parliamentary Business, all these items define the "parliamentary calendar" - and they lay out the agenda in terms of what Questions and what motions will be brought up in the house. Questions & Motions are inextricably linked to the schedule of events in parliament because they must be tabled in advance (in writing). This is done to prevent members from ambushing the house by suddenly raising unanticipated issues and questions. The Questions and motions are thus recorded in advance, and a time (schedule) is allocated for each question/motion by either the clerk or the house business committee. Subsequently when the order paper/weekly schedules are being prepared, the system looks up the list of posted (and pending) motions for that day and lists them within the order paper / weekly schedule.