text_body: --- DIVISION TITLE ---
  
  Motion to sit in private
  
  --- MOTION EFFECT ---
  
  <p>Eric Forth moved "That the House sit in private", in accordance to <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmstords/416/41605.htm#a183"> Standing Order No. 163</a>, which says: 
  
  <p class="indent">If at any sitting of the House... any Member moves 'That the House sit in private' the Speaker... shall forthwith put the question 'That the House sit in private', and such question, though opposed, may be decided after the expiration of the time for opposed business, but such a Motion may be made no more than once in any sitting.</p>
  
  <p>This was a procedural tactic. By ensuring the defeat of a motion to sit in private at the beginning of the sitting, Forth makes it impossible for any member to move the motion during a subsequent debate.</p>
  
  <p>If such a motion is brought during the debate for a Bill, and fewer than 40 MPs vote in it, then the debate ends immediately regardless of the result, as has been done on <a href="http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2003-03-14&number=114"> 2003-03-14</a> and <a href="http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2005-02-25&number=96"> 2005-02-25</a>.</p> 
  
  --- COMMENTS AND NOTES ---
  
  (put thoughts and notes for other researchers here)
  
  