Opposition day debates in the House of Commons since 1992

Opposition days are days allocated in the House of Commons for debates on subjects chosen by the opposition (non-government) parties.

Under Commons Standing Order No.14, 20 days in each session are made available to the opposition, of which:

• 17 days are allocated to the leader of the Official Opposition
• three days are allocated to the leader of the second largest opposition party, who shares the time with smaller parties

If a session lasts longer than a year, the party whips may agree to further opposition days. The government may also provide further ‘unallotted’ opposition days, even in a year-long session. Some of these might be used for the smaller parties. On full opposition days, the opposition may decide to use the time available for a single debate, or for two debates on different subjects. When there are two subjects, the time is roughly split in half. In this case, the two subjects may be debated on the same day, or on different days.

Opposition day debates are announced by the Leader of the House in the weekly business statement on Thursdays. Once decided by the opposition party, the subject of the debate and text of the motion is published in the Future Business section of the Order Paper. Often the motion is not tabled until the day before the debate which means it is not available until the day of the debate, when it appears in the Order Paper.

Many opposition motions criticise government policies and decisions and the government often tables an amendment to remove most of the text, replacing it with text commending the government instead. Government amendments are usually carried under majority governments (when the governing party has more than 50% of the seats in Parliament).

The government does not table an amendment to every motion, sometimes it simply votes against the motion. Not all motions are critical of the government; in such cases opposition motions have been agreed without a vote. Amendments can be tabled by other opposition parties.

The Speaker selects which amendment, if any, is taken. Usually only one amendment is selected. However, in a break from convention in January 2024 the Speaker selected two amendments – a government amendment and an amendment tabled by the Official Opposition - to an opposition motion by the Scottish National Party. Following the decision, the Speaker made a statement to the House outlining his selection process for the amendments.

The opposition sometimes table a motion in the form of a humble address on opposition days. A humble address is a message to the King. It’s used, among other things, to call for papers from government departments headed by a Secretary of State. It can be debated, amended, and voted on like any other motion. Humble addresses, if agreed, are understood to be binding on the House.

To find out more about what happens in the Chamber on an opposition day debate, please see the MPs' Guide to Procedure.

The government may choose to make a statement in response to an opposition day debate. Written statements made in response to opposition day debates are available on the written statements website.

The downloadable Excel file lists dates of debates, parties choosing the subject, and the outcome of each debate. Source details are available in the Excel file.

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