Assisted Dying: "Final Vote" on 13th June?

Parliament sat last Friday (16th May) to debate further the “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill”.

The short version media report was that the “final vote” will be on 13th June.

It's actually more complex than that. After the committee stage (scrutinising legislation line by line), there is a "report stage". This is when a series of amendments requested by MPs are debated and then voted upon, given they've received the amended version the committee recommends. This is followed by the "third reading" - the third opportunity MPs get to vote on the complete bill (now, as amended).

If it passes third reading, it goes to the Lords, who have first and second readings, their own committee process, and then a third reading.

MPs then need to vote again if the version coming back from the Lords is any different from the version they sent there. If they want to make further changes (like, changing bits back to what they asked for), it has to be voted again at the Lords. This continues until they find a version both houses can agree on.

That last stage is called "ping pong", and can last ages. But, in urgent and important legislation, can be done in one session, with both houses sitting, and each picking up the debate as soon as the other has done their turn.

So what's 13th June? Friday was the report stage. Most bills have the 3rd reading and vote immediately after the report stage, all in one day. Over 400 amendments were requested, of which over 130 were approved for debate in the Commons. Not all will get spoken to, but they didn't anywhere like get through the debate required. So rather than proceeding from report to 3rd reading and vote, someone moved at 3pm that the whole thing be adjourned to a later date. Because Private Members Bills only get airtime on certain Fridays in the year, 13th June is the next slot.

So 13th June is when report stage will finish, and when there will almost certainly be a third reading and vote. So the "final vote" is simply the final vote from MPs before it goes to the Lords and starts there.