124  Corrections

Amendments of a formal nature may be made, and clerical or typographical errors may be corrected, in any part of a bill by the Chairman of Committees.

Amendment history

Adopted: 19 August 1903 as SO 213 but renumbered as SO 212 for the first printed edition

1989 revision: Old SO 219 renumbered as SO 124; references to amendments of a “verbal” nature (as in “verbal or formal”) deleted

Commentary

Minor amendments to bills that do not make any substansive changes are done by wat of Chairman's amendments

The 1989 revision clarified and underlined the scope of this standing order as excluding any substantive amendments. Only amendments of a clerical or typographical nature, including any relevant renumbering, are permitted under this standing order. Anything more substantial may be done only by amendment in committee of the whole.

In practice, corrections are recommended by the Clerk and signed off by the Chairman of Committees. This routinely occurs at the end of each calendar year when short title citations of bills introduced in the Senate are updated at the next printing of the bill to reflect the fact that the bill has carried over into the new year. The next printing of the bill is either after the third reading (if the Senate has amended the bill) or in preparation for assent.

For a discussion of “verbal” and “formal”, also see SO 170.