ANGUS Brendan MacNeil, the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, has won the chance to be one of the first MPs in this session of parliament to make their own mark on the law by introducing a Private Members’ Bill.
These are public bills introduced by MPs who are not government ministers. Mr MacNeil was drawn in seventh place out of the 461 MPs who took part in a ballot of members.
Twenty ballot balls were drawn by clerk assistant John Benger, with the names of the successful MP read out by the chairman of ways and means, Lindsay Hoyle MP. However, as time for debating Private Members’ Bills is limited to just 13 Fridays in each parliamentary session, only the top seven in the ballot are virtually guaranteed debating time.