House of Commons Archives

Research Briefing

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill 2010-11: Commons Stages

Thursday, 11 November, 2010

This Paper summarises all Commons stages of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill 2010-11. It supplements Research Paper 10/55 which was produced for the Bill’s Second Reading and replaces Standard Note 5697 'Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill: Progress of the Bill'. No major changes were made during the passage of the Bill in the Commons, but the text of the referendum question was altered and legislative provision was made for the combination of polls on 5 May 2011.
Research Briefing

Welsh Grand Committee

Friday, 29 October, 2010

Some Members representing Welsh constituencies called for a meeting of the Welsh Grand Committee in order to discuss the impact on Wales of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill 2010. The Secretary of State, Cheryl Gillan, declined. This Note gives a very brief account of the business of the Committee and a list of its previous meetings.
Research Briefing

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill [Bill 63 of 2010-11]

Wednesday, 01 September, 2010

This Paper has been prepared for the Second Reading debate in the House of Commons. The Bill seeks to enable the next general election to be fought under the Alternative Vote system, provided this change is endorsed in a referendum on 5 May 2011 and boundary changes have been made to reduce the size of the House of Commons to 600. New rules for the redistribution of seats are designed to give primacy to numerical equality in constituencies and regular redistributions would take place every five years.
Research Briefing

Reducing the size of the House of Commons

Wednesday, 28 July, 2010

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill was introduced on 22 July 2010 and introduces new Rules for Redistribution which make provision for the number of constituencies to be reduced to 600. This note looks briefly at the current Rules for Redistribution and at recent calls for the Rules to be changed; details of the length of time it has taken to carry out periodical reviews of Parliamentary constituencies are also given. A summary of the Bill's main provisions is also included.
Research Briefing

The Rules for the Redistribution of Seats- history and reform

Wednesday, 28 July, 2010

This briefing is no longer being updated. It has been replaced by another Library briefing paper: Constituency boundary reviews and the number of MPs, Research Briefing 5929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

Reform of the House of Commons: The establishment of a Backbench Business Committee

Thursday, 17 June, 2010

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

Proposals for an e-petitions system for the House of Commons

Wednesday, 12 May, 2010

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

Remaining stages of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill 2009-10

Wednesday, 14 April, 2010

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

Proposals for a Petitions Committee for the House of Commons

Tuesday, 16 March, 2010

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

Reform of the House of Commons: Decisions taken on 22 February and 4 March 2010

Monday, 08 March, 2010

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

Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill: Committee stage report

Thursday, 25 February, 2010

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

The Report of the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons, Rebuilding the House

Friday, 19 February, 2010

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

Establishment of the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons

Monday, 25 January, 2010

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

PIL: Timeline of House of Commons Responses to the Iraq War

Thursday, 25 June, 2009
Research Briefing

MPs’ allowances and FoI requests

Monday, 22 June, 2009

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.

Total results (page 16 of 18)