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Standing Order 14(1) is at the center of the latest UK constitutional revolution/innovation (label depends whom you ask), which suspended for one day (today) its first (and perhaps most important) paragraph, which gives priority to government business... unless otherwise specified. This rule has been the subject of prior, but ultimately failed reforms before today.

But what struck me looking looking at the full order, not just its first paragraph, is that it's pretty long (compared to most other standing orders; only 1B and 10 are longer in number of paragraphs, if I surveyed them correctly). So I suspect it might have been amended before (not counting today's suspension) because it's hard to fathom that all those intricate rules have survived intact for over 100 years since Standing Order 14 came to be. For example 14(2)(c) makes reference to Standing Order 20 and 24 (the latter is about emergency debates); these two probably didn't exist when Order 14 was adopted, unless they were all adopted as a package.

So, was Standing Order 14 ever amended before today (not just in its first paragraph)? It there an estimate how many times it was amended?


Well, the answer to my first question question is clearly yes, it was amended, because 14(6)(e) makes reference to Standing Order 152J (Backbench Business Committee); which was adopted in aforementioned 2010 reform. So that leaves us with finding out roughly how many amendments have been to Standing Order 14 as a whole.

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This helpful document from the House of Commons seems to have the complete list:

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmstords/1020/so_1020_180501.pdf

As of 1 May 2018, its date of publication, Standing Order 14 was amended on (page xiii):

1 Aug. 1963, 14 Nov. 1967, 24 Oct. 1968, 8 Mar. 1971, 19 July 1982, 30 Mar. 1983, 23 May 1985, 11 and 12 July 1994, 2 Nov. 1995, 20 Mar. 1997, 29 Oct. 2002, 26 Jan. 2005, 1 Nov. 2006, 15 June 2010, 16 and 17 July 2012, 4 July 2013 and 24 Feb. 2015.

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