March 21: Alun Michael, the Rural Affairs Minister, said the Government was prepared to force a new Bill through the Commons using the Parliament Act to settle the future of hunting with dogs if peers opposed it.

August 1: Ban on hunting with dogs comes into force in Scotland.

December 3: Mr Michael published the Hunting Bill, which would ban deer hunting and hare-coursing in England and Wales but allow some hunting of foxes and mink if it passed strict tests of utility and cruelty.

December 16: Second Reading of the Hunting Bill in House of Commons. Mr Michael said he hoped that Parliament would accept the Bill. If not, he said that the Government would be willing to invoke the Parliament Act if necessary to force it through.

January 7: Bill reaches committee stage, where it can be amended before going to the Lords. Labour backbenchers are likely to try to beef it up to ban hunting outright. The current Bill is seen as an unacceptable compromise.

Around Easter: The report stage finishes and the Bill goes to the House of Lords, where it is likely to be rejected.

July: Whatever the Lords decide, the Bill will go back to the Commons before the Parliamentary summer recess or shortly after Parliament reconvenes in October.

October/November: If the House of Lords approves it, the Bill will go for Royal Assent. But if, as expected, it continues to reject it, the Bill will die at the end of the parliamentary session in November.

November: The Government would reintroduce the Bill in the Queen's Speech for the 2003-04 session.

2004

January: Likely to be the earliest date for the reintroduction of the Bill, which will again go to the House of Lords. If peers reject it at this stage, the Bill will be sent for Royal Assent under the Parliament Act, which overrides the Lords.

November: The House of Lords is likely to try to amend the Bill again and prolong the political process until the end of the 2003-04 session. If no compromise has been reached, the Parliament Act is invoked and the Bill goes for Royal Assent in mid-November.

December 17: Deer-hunting becomes illegal a month after the Bill receives Royal Assent. Panels and tribunals are set up to assess foxhunts for cruelty, a process which could take up to a year before all the evidence and appeals have been heard.

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