File n° 67 

The main activity of the Table Office revolves, quite naturally, around the plenary sitting, its preparation, running and follow-up.

However, being as it is, in direct contact with the Presidency and situated at the cross-over point between the works of other departments, the Table Office also possesses a remit which includes matters of a more general nature. The Table Office is, more generally speaking, in charge of procedure and the application of the Rules of Procedure.

The Table Office includes three units:

― The Plenary Sitting Unit which includes, under the authority of two Unit Heads, five clerks and three deputy clerks;

― The Joint Affairs and Vote Unit which is led by a Unit Head and has six deputy clerks, of whom two are in charge of an office dealing with the composition and the digitalization of documents;

― The Law Unit which is made up of one Unit Head, two clerks and three deputy clerks.

Six secretaries are available for the entire Table Office and five carry out their duties in the composition and digitalization office.

In addition, the Table Office includes ten porters and twenty-eight ushers who carry out their duties in the Chamber or in the adjoining rooms.

I. –  The Plenary Sitting Unit

In general terms, the activity of the Plenary Sitting Unit, which is carried out as the case may be, before, during or after the plenary sitting, may be divided into five categories: the preparation of debates, legislative procedure, monitoring procedures, various procedures linked to the make-up of the Assembly and to appointments within different bodies and finally information on the work of the Assembly and statutory and constitutional jurisprudence.

1. – The preparation of debates

a)  The Secretariat of the Conference of Presidents

The Conference of Presidents meets each week during the session. It is chaired by the President of the National Assembly and is made up of the six vice presidents, the chairmen of political groups, the chairmen of committees, the chairman of the Delegation for the European Union , the Rapporteur General of the Finance Committee and the Minister in Charge of Relations with Parliament. It draws up the agenda for the Assembly and organizes the debates.

The Plenary Sitting Unit mans the secretariat of the Conference of Presidents. It calls the meetings of the Conference of Presidents, prepares them and draws up their minutes.

―       Before each meeting, it makes contact with the Minister in Charge of Relations with Parliament to be sure that the agenda which will be put before the Conference of Presidents is compatible with the progress made on bills in committee. It also provides a sufficient time allotment for each bill by taking into account, in particular, the estimated number of amendments.

―       It prepares files for the President on all matters which are likely to be discussed. In particular, it puts forward a suggested time allotment for the general discussion of bills or for debates which are scheduled to take place in the coming weeks.

b)  The Organisation of the Discussions

It is the duty of the Plenary Sitting Unit to ensure the correct organization of debates and speeches during both the general discussion of bills and during the debates which take place in the Assembly.

―  It calculates the allotment of speaking time between the political groups, which depends upon their size, taking into account the overall time for discussion decided upon by the Conference of Presidents. It informs the political groups of its decision.

―  It records M.P.s requests to speak.

―   It draws up, under the authority of the President, the order of speakers.

2. –  Legislative procedure

The unit carries out its duties at every stage of procedure.

a) The Tabling of Bills

Government and Members’ bills and parliamentary reports in order to be tabled, are received by the Plenary Sitting Unit. It provides every one with a registration number which means that each document can be identified during the entire procedure. It draws up, at the end of the final sitting of the day, a list of all the documents which have been tabled that particular day.

For Members’ bills it also carries out a verification of the admissibility of a bill.

Acting under the authority of the President, it can refuse the tabling of Members’ bills which it deems contrary to the provisions of the Constitution or of institutional laws.

It also mans the secretariat of the Bureau’s delegation in charge of examining the financial admissibility of Members’ bills; article 40 of the Constitution, in fact, prohibits parliamentary initiatives which would have the effect of creating or increasing an item of public expenditure or which would diminish public resources.

Except in cases when an ad hoc committee is set up, the Plenary Sitting Unit, under the authority of the President to whom disputed cases are referred, decides to which standing committee the tabled bills must be sent. It then takes the necessary measures to publicize the tabling of the bills (notably in the Journal Officiel) and transmits them to the Communication Department which is in charge of their printing and distribution.

b) The Preparation of the Plenary Sitting

― The Plenary Sitting Unit records, lays out, arranges the printing of and distributes the procedural motions – inadmissibility exceptions, preliminary questions or motions of referral to committee – which may be tabled on each bill.

― Its most important task concerns amendments. When the initiative for such amendments comes from Parliament, it must, first of all, as for Members’ bills, check their admissibility. If a doubt is raised concerning their financial admissibility, it requests the advice of the Finance Committee. The lay-out of such amendments represents a substantial amount of its activity. This requires the standardization of their presentation and their being limited to the modifications proposed so that the discussion in plenary sitting may be suitably organized.

― The Plenary Sitting Unit then prepares the “President’s File” which constitutes the very centre of its activity. This file includes a number of formal expressions (formulae) corresponding to the procedure being followed, which are read by the chairman of the sitting. The amendments are listed, article by article, according to the statutory instructions which decide the order in which they will be called and voted upon.

c)  The Course of the Plenary Sitting

―  During the plenary sitting, the Plenary Sitting Unit is seated behind the President on the “Plateau”. Its first task is to constantly keep the President’s file up-to-date. The list or the order of speakers may be modified. New amendments or sub-amendments may be tabled and it may be necessary to lay them out and include them in the pre-organized file.

―  In addition, the Plenary Sitting Unit puts together and arranges the reproduction of bundles of amendments listed by the order in which they are called. It distributes them to M.P.s during the discussion.

― The Plenary Sitting Unit also has the task, at all times, of providing the means to resolve problems concerning the Rules of Procedure which may be raised during the course of a plenary sitting. It does this in collaboration with the “head of the plateau” - the Secretary General, Director General or Director of the Table Office – who is in charge of assisting the President.

3. –  Monitoring procedures

In plenary sitting, the monitoring of Government is carried out by various procedures: confidence votes in Government, following Government statements by debate and the different questioning procedures.

a)  Confidence Votes in Government

When a censure motion is tabled, the Plenary Sitting Unit oversees the application of the time limits set by the Constitution (the vote may not be taken within 48 hours of the tabling of the motion) and checks that the list of signatories corresponds to the number required (at least one tenth of the members of the Assembly) and to other criteria (the same M.P. may not sign more than three “spontaneous” motions during the same ordinary session) laid down by the Constitution.

For all the procedures concerning confidence votes in Government, the Plenary Sitting Unit organizes the discussion according to the time limits set by the Conference of Presidents. 

b)  Statements Followed by Debate

The Plenary Sitting Unit organizes the debate just as it does for the procedure concerning confidence votes in Government.

c)  Questions

The Plenary Sitting Unit prepares the President’s file for oral question time and Government question time and makes the necessary contact with the Minister in Charge of Relations with Parliament so as to know which minister will, in fact, be present in order to reply.

4. –  Procedures concerning the forming of the Assembly and various appointments

At the beginning of each Parliament and at the opening of each session, the Assembly is recomposed. This means that all the members of the Bureau are re-elected although the President is elected for the entire term of the Parliament.

In addition, the Assembly is called upon, at the beginning of the Parliament or during the session to appoint certain M.P.s to sit on various bodies: the High Court of Justice, the Court of Justice of the Republic, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or on some extra-parliamentary bodies.

These appointments follow a variety of procedures but all nonetheless are organized by the Plenary Sitting Unit:

―  It first of all calls upon candidates to make themselves known, notably by sending a memorandum to the political groups reminding them of the time limits and appointment mechanisms involved.

―  It receives the candidacies and renders them public.

―  It prepares the appointment file.

―  When an appointment is made, it ensures that it is published and transmits it, if need be, to the competent authorities and to those directly concerned.

In addition, the Plenary Sitting Unit receives the political statements of the political groups as well as the requests for membership and resignations of their members. It makes all such information public.

5. –  The drawing-up of “precedents”

The Plenary Sitting Unit notes and comments upon all those matters which, within the activities of the Assembly, provide interesting information on the application of the Constitution, institutional laws, the Rules of Procedure or the General Instructions of the Bureau.

This jurisprudence of parliamentary practice is kept article by article. This means that the Table Office has substantial catalogued archives which serve as a kind of “memory” of the Office but also that, through the repetition of the same scenario, a tradition is created whereby the President may use such documents to take or to justify decisions.

II. – The Joint Affairs and Vote Unit

The Joint Affairs and Vote Unit is the most recent unit to have joined the Table Office. It has taken on the tasks which previously fell within the remit of the Central Unit attached to the head of the Committee Department before the latter was broken up into five poles. It has also absorbed the tasks of the Vote Unit which was until then attached to the Communication Department. The Parliamentary Document Composition and Digitalization Office is also attached to the Joint Affairs and Vote Unit

1. – Joint procedures

The unit deals with all procedures concerning all committees.

― It is thus in charge of the initial composition of committees at the beginning of a Parliament and of their renewal at the opening of each session. It prepares the file for the election of the chairman and Bureau of each committee. During the session, it receives the appointments and resignations of members of committees and makes sure all such information is made public as is laid down by statute.

―  Its remit also includes the composition of non-permanent bodies such as ad hoc committees, committees of inquiry and fact-finding missions common to several committees. It is also in charge, along with the Senate, of the composition and organization of the joint committees.

―  It is also in charge of the follow-up to committee work and in particular in the field of the making of statistics on their legislative and monitoring activities.

― The unit also manages the “minutes team” which is made available to each committee when it carries out special hearings. It also distributes the rooms reserved for the various committees according to the requests which it receives.

2. – Information concerning the activities of the assembly

The Joint Affairs and Vote Unit centralizes an enormous amount of data concerning the activities of the Assembly. It is thus in a position to provide information on all the legislative and monitoring procedures.

It also regularly updates documents concerning the individual status of M.P.s (elections, challenges, committees, political groups, various bodies of which they are members).

It draws up annual statistics on the activities of the National Assembly.

3. – Votes

Except for ballots by show of hands during the plenary sitting, all votes at the Assembly are by an electronic system and fall within the remit of the Joint Affairs and Vote Unit.

―   Thus, along with the Information Systems Department, the Joint Affairs and Vote Unit has responsibility for the upkeep and the technical development of the voting machine.

―   Before each plenary sitting, the unit receives the proxy votes from the political groups by electronic mail – each M.P. may vote for one of his colleagues by proxy. It may also process such proxy votes in the final minutes before certain votes.

―   The unit also carries out, under the authority of the chairman of the plenary sitting, the public ballots which are requested for certain votes. It prepares and organizes the specific ballots which take place for the application of constitutional procedures (such as motions of confidence in the Government) or for personal appointments which take place in the rooms adjoining the Chamber.

―   If the Parliament convenes in Congress for the approval of a constitutional revision, the unit is also in charge of the preparation and organization of the vote. In this case it works in direct collaboration with the Vote Unit of the Senate.

―   In addition, the Joint Affairs and Vote Unit also makes sure that the results of all public ballots are indeed made public.

4. – The Composition and Digitalization Office

―   The Composition and Digitalization Office is in charge of the drawing-up of the “Feuilleton” which is a publication which brings together, every day of plenary sitting, all useful information on the activity of the Assembly, such as the agenda, the committee meetings or the publication of parliamentary documents.

―    It also carries out the digitalization of the amendments laid out by the Plenary Sitting Unit. This allows them to be placed on-line immediately.

―    It is also in charge of the composition of the bills passed which are based on the document drawn up by the Law Unit. These are referred to as “little laws”.

―    In addition, it participates in the publication of the verbatim minutes of the plenary sittings, by drawing up the “blue volume” which includes the text of the amendments which it has already digitalized and the table of contents.

―    And finally, the office lays out bills transmitted in digitalized form by the Government and composes and lays out Members’ bills before they are reproduced by an outside printer.

III. – the law unit

The tasks of the Law Unit may be divided into two categories: those which are linked to the plenary sitting and which follow its rhythm and those which are not directly dependent on the plenary sittings of the Assembly.

1. –   The passing of legislative bills

The main aim of the Law Unit is, as its name suggests, to follow the passing of legislative bills. This task is carried out throughout the process.

a) Before Their Examination in Plenary Sitting and as of Their Inclusion on the Agenda

Legislative texts – Government bills, Members’ bills and amendments – are subjected to a prior examination. As regards content, the provisions and the references to prior bills are checked so as to ensure the coherence of the bill to be passed. The Law Unit is also in charge of examining whether the bill to be discussed falls within the ambit of statute, so as to enable the President to rule on a potential inadmissibility based on such a reason. This possibility is very rarely used. As regards form, particular attention is paid to the correct typography, punctuation, spelling, grammar and numbering of the bill.

When such verifications involve modifications other than purely formal ones, such changes are carried out in collaboration with the initiators of the bills i.e. the Government, committees or the authors of amendments.

b) During Plenary Sitting

The Law Unit follows the discussion of the bills in plenary sitting.

Its first task is to monitor the speaking time and to provide the President and the speakers with the necessary indications to remain within the time limits.

But mostly it records the decisions of the Assembly on articles and amendments.

c)  At the End of the Plenary Sitting

On the basis of the decisions taken by the Assembly which the Law Unit has recorded, it draws up, in digital form, and checks the bill which is the result of such deliberations.

This bill is immediately transmitted, in provisional form, to the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG) and to the Senate. At the same time the Law Unit has the bill printed and distributed.

Two copies on vellum paper of this text, which is deemed authentic, are signed by the President of the National Assembly and are given the seal of the National Assembly. One is transmitted to the General Secretariat of the Government and the other is placed in the archives of the National Assembly.

2. –  Permanent Tasks

a)  The drawing-up of the “List of Laws”

The Law Unit draws up, three times a year, a collection of bills which have been passed during the period called the “Recueil des lois” or “List of Laws”.

Each bill contained therein is preceded by a list of the preparatory work carried out in its drawing-up. This is a reference to the successive parliamentary documents – Government or Members’ bills, reports, texts adopted at the different stages of the procedure – and to the minutes of the sittings. When the bill has been referred to the Constitutional Council, then its decision is also added.

b)  Other Publications

The Law Unit also draws up other publications for the National Assembly.

― It is in charge of publishing the Rules of Procedure and its successive modifications as well as the General Instructions of the Bureau.

― It is also responsible, along with the Law Unit of the Senate, for the drawing-up of the Recueil des pouvoirs publics, which is a collection of texts concerning the Presidency of the Republic, the Government and the assemblies.

c) The Interpretation of Constitutional and Statutory Texts

The Law Unit contributes, from a parliamentary point of view, to the interpretation of constitutional, institutional and statutory texts. In parallel with the Plenary Sitting Unit, it participates in the drawing-up of “precedents” in the areas which fall especially within its remit. This is particularly the case for the application of articles 34 and 37 of the Constitution which deal with matters for statute and matters for regulation.

It also follows the decisions of the Constitutional Council which it analyses and comments upon, when they deal with the powers of Parliament or the legislative procedure.