House of Commons

Female MPs were more likely to use virtual participation and proxy voting between April and November 2020.

This briefing paper provides an update on developments since the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019 received Royal Assent in October 2019.

On 23 June 2020, the House approved the establishment of an Independent Expert Panel to consider cases against MPs raised under the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme. On 24 November 2020, it will be asked to approve the eight members of the Independent Expert Panel.

This list notes when a Member has changed allegiance from one political party to another or decided to sit as an independent MP. Instances of Members losing or resigning a party whip are also noted.

A motion to appoint a lay member to the Committee on Standards is scheduled to be considered on Tuesday 10 November 2020, in the Chamber.

Since being formed in 1965, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly has provided a forum for parliamentarians from the NATO Member States to promote debate on key security challenges, facilitate mutual understanding and support national parliamentary oversight of defence matters. The Assembly also helps to strengthen the transatlantic relationship and provides many opportunities for North American and European parliamentarians to discuss their concerns, interests and differences.

This is the full briefing on our series on House of Commons trends. It looks at statistics on the working and procedures of the House of Commons. It looks at the composition of the Commons, the Parliamentary mechanisms, time spent on different types of business and staffing among other things.

Tony Blair has had the highest attendance rate of any Prime Minister since 1979.

John and Margaret have been the most popular names for MPs since 1979.

How has the average age of MPs changed, depending on gender or party?

As of the 2019 General Election, there had been nearly 23 million unique signatures since the formation of the e-petitions site.

Early signs suggest that the 2019-21 session is not following recent trends - there’s been an average of just 0.75 paper petitions per sitting day.