The coronavirus timeline sets out the Commons’ response to the pandemic, including key ‘lock down’ dates and changes to the way parliamentarians worked. It includes links to the relevant debates in Hansard, Speaker’s Statements, Procedure Committee reports, the ‘Members’ Guide to hybrid proceedings’ and correspondence on proceedings during the pandemic.
Documents to download
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Members and Constituency Etiquette (577 KB, PDF)
In the British parliamentary system one Member represents a single constituency, and conventions have developed so that one Member’s relations with his or her constituents are very much a preserve other Members should not interfere with.
The conventions dealing with these matters are not the subject of formal parliamentary rules.
Constituency casework
The general principle in relation to constituency casework was set out by Edmund Marshall, a former MP, in his 1982 book Parliament and the Public: “any citizen in the United Kingdom should first get in touch with his own constituency representative”. He continued:
- There is a convention, almost universally observed on all sides of the House of Commons, that Members deal with personal inquiries only from their own constituents.
There are nuances and some potential areas of overlap but Speaker Martin considered that “It is best to leave it to the good sense of Members to work out any problems between them”.
Some issues might be more appropriately dealt with by local councillors or members of devolved legislatures, but a constituent can write to whichever representative he or she chooses.
Guidance for ministers on raising constituency matters can be found in the Ministerial Code.
Visiting other constituencies
By convention Members intending to visit another constituency, other than on a purely private or personal matter, should inform the relevant Member. Guidance has been given from the Chair and has been set out in Rules of behaviour and courtesies in the House of Commons, issued by the Speaker and Deputy Speakers:
- Courtesy to other Members
- 43. You should notify colleagues whenever:
- you intend to refer to them in the Chamber (other than making passing reference to what they have said on the public record)
- you table Questions which specifically affect colleagues’ constituencies
- you intend to visit a colleague’s constituency (except on purely private visits).
Guidance for ministers on official visits can be found in the Ministerial Code.
Documents to download
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Members and Constituency Etiquette (577 KB, PDF)
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