House of Commons portcullis
House of Commons
Session 2006 - 07
Internet Publications
House of Commons Standing Orders - Public Business

 

Members of the public

 

Duties of

 

Serjeant at Arms

 

with respect to

 

the public.

 

 

161.—(1) The Serjeant at Arms attending this House shall

 

take into his custody any member of the public whom he may

 

see, or who may be reported to him to be, in any part of the

 

House or gallery appropriated to the Members of this House,

 

and also any member of the public who, having been admitted

 

into any other part of the House or gallery, shall misconduct

 

himself, or shall not withdraw when the public are directed to

 

withdraw, while the House, or any committee of the whole

 

House, is sitting.

 

(2) The power conferred upon the Serjeant at Arms by

 

paragraph (1) of this order may, if the chairman so directs, be

 

exercised in respect of members of the public present at sittings

 

of committees.

 

Places to which

 

the public are not

 

admitted.

 

 

162. No Member of this House shall presume to bring any

 

member of the public into any part of the House or gallery

 

appropriated to the Members of this House while the House, or

 

a committee of the whole House, is sitting.

 

Motions to sit in

 

private.

 

 

163.—(1) If at any sitting of the House, or in a committee of

 

the whole House, any Member moves ‘That the House sit in

 

private’ the Speaker or the chairman shall forthwith put the

 

question ‘That the House sit in private’, and such question,

 

though opposed, may be decided after the expiration of the

 

time for opposed business, but such a Motion may be made no

 

more than once in any sitting:

 

Provided that the Speaker or the chairman may, whenever he

 

thinks fit, order the withdrawal of those other than Members or

 

Officers from any part of the House.

 

(2) An order under paragraph (1) of this order shall not apply

 

to members of the House of Lords.

 


Clerk of the House of Commons.

Examined


Clerk of the Journals.

 
 


 
previous section contents continue
 
House of Commons home page Houses of Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries

© Parliamentary copyright 2007
Revised 19 April 2007