It seems that the current government is determined to reduce the opportunities for members bills etc, by motioning the house into urgency.
See:
another misuse of urgency
urgency again
So, perhaps something can be done about that?
The definition of urgency and its effect is in Standing Orders 54-58 (page 35-36). Standing Orders themselves can be amended or revocked by a motion (Standing Order 6; page 24) and reviewed by the Standing Orders Committee (Standing Order 7). Members can introduce a notice of motion, which is something dealt with in the same slot as Members Bills (Standing Order 68-67, page 37-38).
Therefore, (if I'm reading this right) in principle it seems that any Member can bring a motion to parliament that modifies the rules on urgency.
So, what might that motion look like?
I can see a couple of strategies:
Either, modify Standing Order 54 Urgency (2) to read:
"A motion for urgency may not be moved until after the completion of general business, and, on a Wednesday, the completion of Members' orders of the day."
Or, add to Standing Order 55 Effect of Urgency a section (2)(e)
"if a sitting extends over a Wednesday, then when urgency ceases the provisions of Standing Order 73 (Wednesdays) apply to the next day that the House sits."
Comments?
I realise that this only deals with one problem of urgency (stealing Wednesday) the other (main?) problem with urgency is that it allows bills to arrive by stealth.
Unfortunately, it falls to the House how it conducts its business. Urgency is only problematic (from a Parliamentary POV) if Parliament considers it so. The fact Parliament agreed to move into Urgency recently shows Parliament was OK with it. Standing Orders are required.
I think backbenchers would probably support this, given that Member's day is how they introduce bills that the wider government might be reticent about.
But yeah, you'd have a hard time getting it through given that the house has to vote on urgency in the first place. This is more a matter of partisan behaviour than of parliamentary procedure. The suggestion is good in general.
Another tactic would be to state that bills must pass the select committee stage before their third reading under urgency, unless parliament invokes extraordinary urgency. That still allows them to rush for genuine emergencies, but it stops Parliament from bypassing the select committee quite so lightly, as extraordinary urgency is almost never used. (as it can extend the sitting past midnight if you don't conclude business fast enough)