In parliamentary procedure, the motion to sit in private is a proposal that a deliberative assembly consider its business, or part thereof, in camera, meaning with only members of the assembly taking part and without records of the sitting being made public.
Article 33 of the Constitution of France dictates that "each House may sit in camera at the request of the Prime Minister or of one tenth of its members".
[1] In each house of the Italian Parliament, if either one tenth of all members or the Government (usually represented either by the Prime Minister or by the Minister for Relations with Parliament) move to sit in private, the proposal is immediately put up to a vote without debate.
The standing orders of both Houses prescribe that if a division is called, and fewer than a certain number of members participate in it, consideration of the main motion is postponed.
To prevent this from happening, supporters of a bill often move themselves to sit in private at the beginning of the debate, when the number of MPs attending is usually higher.