Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has assured that Parliament will resist attempts to rush Bills through the legislative process without adequate scrutiny, warning against the growing practice of suspending Standing Orders to accelerate the passage of legislation.
He said presiding officers would be particularly reluctant to entertain requests for the suspension of parliamentary rules solely to speed up the passage of Bills, unless the urgency of such requests was clearly demonstrated.
Addressing the House at the commencement of the Third Meeting of the Second Session of the Ninth Parliament on November 3, 2026, Mr. Bagbin said the increasing resort to suspending parliamentary procedures had become a matter of public concern.
He acknowledged that the suspension of Standing Orders was permissible under exceptional circumstances, particularly when the House needed to respond to urgent national matters.
However, he cautioned that such a provision must not become the normal approach to conducting parliamentary business.
“I recognise that there may be exceptional circumstances in which the suspension of particular rules becomes necessary to enable the House to respond to urgent national business. Our Standing Orders themselves contemplate such circumstances.
“However, a procedure intended for exceptional situations must not become the ordinary method by which we conduct our legislative business,” he said.
Mr. Bagbin explained that the various stages of the legislative process were not mere formalities but important safeguards to ensure that proposed laws received the necessary examination before being passed.
According to him, the procedures provided Members of Parliament with sufficient opportunity to examine Bills, identify possible legal and constitutional challenges and propose the necessary corrections.
He stressed that Parliament’s credibility as a law-making institution depended not only on the number of laws it passed but also on their quality, coherence and constitutional soundness.
“The credibility of Parliament as a law-making institution depends not only on our ability to pass legislation but also on the quality, coherence and constitutional soundness of the laws we enact,” he stated.
The Speaker also expressed concern that the haste associated with the consideration and passage of some Bills had resulted in errors being discovered after the Third Reading.
He noted that such situations had sometimes forced the House to rescind proceedings at that stage to allow the necessary corrections to be made.
While acknowledging that parliamentary procedures allowed the House to revisit decisions already taken, he insisted that the provision should not be used as a substitute for thorough legislative examination.
He, therefore, urged MPs not to confuse legislative efficiency with the speed at which Bills were passed.
Mr. Bagbin further called on the leadership of the House to work closely with ministers and chief executives of state institutions to ensure that government business was presented early enough to allow Parliament sufficient time for consideration.
He added that ministers and their technical teams must be available to assist parliamentary committees in examining Bills and addressing policy and drafting concerns that might arise during deliberations.
“Committees must also be afforded reasonable time to undertake their work, including stakeholder consultations. Parliament cannot compromise on the presentation of well-considered reports to the House,” he said.
