Research Briefing
This briefing is no longer being updated. It has been replaced by another Library briefing paper: Constituency boundary reviews and the number of MPs, Research Briefing 5929
Research Briefing
This note briefly sets out the way in which the business of the House of Commons is currently decided. It summarises the proposals on the scheduling of business from the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons and the decisions made by the House on 4 March 2010. It considers the March 2010 report of Reform Committee and their proposed changes to Standing Orders, along with the Government's own proposals.
Research Briefing
In April 2008 the House of Commons Procedure Committee published a report on e-Petitions. This note looks at the benefits and risks that the Procedure Committee identified in their report, and sets out some information about e-petitions systems in Queensland, Australia, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales. It also includes information about the No. 10 Downing Street e-petitions system, introduced in November 2006.
Research Briefing
This Note outlines the changes made to the Bill during report stage and third reading in the House of Commons, seconf reading in the Lords and during wash up.
Research Briefing
This note outlines the current petitions process in the House of Commons. It then sets out the findings of the Procedure Committee's reports on petitions and the recommendations of the Committee on Reform of the House of Commons. Lastly it considers the operation of petitions committees in the Scottish Parliament and the House of Representatives in Australia.
Research Briefing
On 22 February 2010 the House of Commons held a general debate on the report of the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons, Rebuilding the House. This Note outlines the motions, that were based on recommendations in the Committee's report, that the House agreed to on 22 February and also on 4 March 2010, when those motions objected to on 22 February were put to the House again with selected amendments.
Research Briefing
There were some significant amendments during the Committee Stage of this Bill. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority was given control over setting Members' pay and pensions by amendments to the Parliamentary Standard Act 2009. There is to be a new Compliance Officer to investigate alleged misuse of Members' allowances; amendments would ensure that all MPs and peers would be liable to UK taxes; there would be a referendum on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote by 31 October 2011; and a new requirement on Returning Officers to begin election counts four hours after a general election poll closes.
Research Briefing
On 10 June 2009 the Prime Minister announced that the Government would support a proposal from Tony Wright, the Chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee, to establish a time-limited committee on reform of the House of Commons. The Committee published its report on 24 November. This Note examines the prposals made in the Committee's report and progress made in implementing them.
Research Briefing
On 20 July 2009, the day before it rose for the summer recess, the House of Commons agreed to establish the 18-member Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons. This note outlines the evolution of the Committee's terms of reference in addition to discussing the Committee's report, published on 24 November 2009.
Research Briefing
This Standard Note sets out details of the major FoI requests made to the House of Commons since the introduction of the right to make individual requests in January 2005. It also describes the actions taken by the House of Commons in response to the requests and subsequent decisions by the Information Commissioner, the Information Tribunal and the High Court.
Research Briefing
On 25 June 1979 the House of Commons agreed to establish a new system of departmental select committees to scrutinise the expenditure, administration and policy of government departments. This paper briefly sets out the historical background to the departmental select committees system before charting their development over the last 30 years, considering evaluations made of the system and recent proposals for reform.
Research Briefing
On 3 July 2008, the House debated the Review of Allowances but on the 16th July the Opposition Day debate revisited the subject of Members' allowances. On 5 August 2008, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons published a consultation document on the Audit and Assurance of MPs' Allowances.
Research Briefing
On 3 July 2008, the House of Commons debated a series of motions based on reports from Sir John Baker on their pay, and from the Members Estimate Committee on their allowances, in two separate debates This note briefly sets out the background to the debates, and then reviews the decisions that the House took. The decision taken on Members' home addresses is also set out.
Research Briefing
This note discusses the procedure and history of deferred divisions.
Total results (page 16 of 18)