Notices of Amendments: 8 October 2010

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

The Deputy Prime Minister

164

Clause  11,  page  11,  line  34,  leave out ‘Secretary of State’ and insert ‘Minister’.

The Deputy Prime Minister

165

Clause  11,  page  11,  line  35,  leave out ‘Secretary of State’ and insert ‘Minister’.

The Deputy Prime Minister

166

Clause  11,  page  11,  line  40,  leave out ‘Secretary of State’ and insert ‘Minister’.

The Deputy Prime Minister

167

Clause  11,  page  12,  line  18,  at end insert—

‘( )	In this section “the Minister” means the Lord President of the Council or the

Secretary of State.’.

Caroline Lucas

Mr Douglas Carswell

Mark Lazarowicz

13

Clause  16,  page  13,  line  3,  at end insert—

‘(1A)

Section (The single transferable vote system: amendments) comes into force in

accordance with provision made by an order under section 6(1A).’.

Andrew George

76

Clause  16,  page  13,  line  3,  at end insert—

‘(1A)

Part 2 of this Act shall come into force if more votes are cast in the referendum

under Part 1 of the Act in favour of the answer “Yes” than in favour of the answer

“No”.’.

Mr Roger Godsiff

Fiona Mactaggart

Tom Greatrex

82

Clause  16,  page  13,  line  3,  at end insert—

‘(1A)

Section [Mandatory voting at general elections: amendments] comes into force

in accordance with provision made by an order under section 6 (1A).’.

Liz Kendall

Stella Creasy

Sir Peter Soulsby

Stephen Twigg

Kate Green

120

Clause  16,  page  13,  line  3,  at end insert—

‘(1A)

Section [Single transferable vote elections for the House of Lords] comes into

force in accordance with provision made by an order under section 6(1A).’.

Notices of Amendments: 8 October 2010

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

Ms Harriet Harman

Mr Jack Straw

Mr Peter Hain

135

Clause  16,  page  13,  line  5,  at end insert ‘with the exception of Part 2, which will not

come into force until—

(a)	after the referendum on the determination of powers devolved to the

National Assembly for Wales under the terms of the Government of

Wales Act 2006; and

(b)	the Electoral Commission has reported to the House of Commons, that

over 95% of eligible voters in each local authority area are estimated to

be on the electoral register.’.

NEW CLAUSES

Restrictions on ministerial conduct

Mr Bernard Jenkin

Mr David Davis

Mrs Eleanor Laing

Mr Edward Leigh

Mr Christopher Chope

Mr William Cash

NC1

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	Section 125 of the 2000 Act (restriction on publication etc. of promotional

material by central and local government etc) shall be amended as follows.

(2)	After subsection (2) there shall be inserted—

“(2A)

Any breach of the prohibition in subsection (2) above by or on behalf of

a Minister of the Crown shall be treated as a breach by that Minister of

any code in force from time to time governing the conduct of Ministers

of the Crown.”.

(3)	After subsection (3)(c) there shall be inserted—

“(ca)

an indication by a Minister of the Crown, whether or not in

response to enquiries, how they intend to vote in the referendum;

(cb)	a justification of any such voting intention by a Minister of the

Crown by reference to material published before the

commencement of the relevant period by any person or

published during the relevant period by a person or body

designated under section 108”.

(4)	After subsection (3) there shall be inserted—

“(3A)

Subsection (3)(cb) above does not extend to material published or

republished during the relevant period by a person or body designated

under section 108 if it consists of material whose original publication by

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

any person or body (whether lawfully authorised or not) would itself

constitute a breach of the prohibition in subsection (2).”’.

Further referendums

Mr Bernard Jenkin

Mr David Davis

Mrs Eleanor Laing

Mr Edward Leigh

Mr Christopher Chope

Mr William Cash

NC2

To move the following Clause:—

‘No further referendum may be held in relation to the voting system for

parliamentary elections until the end of the period of seven years starting with the

day on which the referendum required by section 1 was held.’.

The single transferable vote system: amendments

Caroline Lucas

Mr Douglas Carswell

Mark Lazarowicz

NC3

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	Within one month of the coming into force of this section, the Minister must lay

before Parliament a draft of an order amending the parliamentary elections rules

as set out in Schedule 1 to the 1983 Act so as to provide for a system of a single

transferable vote in multi-member constituencies.

(2)	An order under subsection (1) above may make any amendments to primary or

secondary legislation necessary to give effect to the use of the single transferable

vote in the United Kingdom parliamentary elections.

(3)	An order under subsection (1) may not be made unless a draft of the order has

been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.’.

The additional member system: amendments

Caroline Lucas

Mr Douglas Carswell

Mark Lazarowicz

NC4

To move the following Clause:—

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

‘(1)	Within one month of the coming into force of this section, the Minister must lay

before Parliament a draft of an order amending the parliamentary elections rules

as set out in Schedule 1 to the 1983 Act so as to provide for an additional member

system.

(2)	An order under subsection (1) above may make any amendments to primary or

secondary legislation necessary to give effect to the use of the additional member

system in United Kingdom parliamentary elections.

(3)	An order under subsection (1) may not be made unless a draft of the order has

been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.’.

Counting of votes on second question of referendum

Caroline Lucas

Mr Douglas Carswell

Mark Lazarowicz

NC5

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	A voter votes by marking the ballot paper with—

(a)	the number 1 opposite the name of the option that is the voter’s first

preference (or, as the case may be, the only option for whom the voter

wishes to vote),

(b)	if the voter wishes, the number 2 opposite the name of the option that is

the voter’s second preference, and so on.

(2)	The voter may mark as many preferences (up to the number of options) as the

voter wishes.

(3)	Votes shall be allocated to options in accordance with voters’ first preferences

and, if one option has more votes than the other options put together, that option

is selected.

(4)	If not, the options with the fewest votes is eliminated and that option’s votes shall

be dealt with as follows—

(a)	each vote cast by a voter who also ranked one or more of the remaining

options shall be reallocated to that remaining option or (as the case may

be) to the one that the voter ranked highest;

(b)	any votes not reallocated shall play no further part in the counting.

(5)	If after that stage of counting one option has more votes than the other remaining

options put together, that option is selected.

(6)	If not, the process mentioned in subsection (4) above shall be repeated as many

times as necessary until one option has more votes than the other remaining

options put together, and so is selected.

(7)	If no option is selected at the first stage of counting, the returning officer shall,

immediately after that stage, record and make publicly available the following

information—

(a)	the number of first-preference votes obtained by each option;

(b)	which option was eliminated;

(c)	the number of rejected ballot papers.

(8)	Immediately after each subsequent stage of counting, except the final stage, the

returning officer shall record and make publicly available the following

information—

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

(a)	the number of votes obtained by each option at that stage;

(b)	which option was eliminated at that stage;

(c)	the number of votes for the option eliminated at the previous stage that

were not reallocated.’.

Ministerial offices

Mark Reckless

NC6

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 is amended as follows.

(2)	In section 2(1), replace “ninety-five” with “eighty-eight”.’.

Variation in limit of number of holders of Ministerial offices

Mr Charles Walker

Mr Graham Allen

Mr Graham Brady

Caroline Lucas

Mrs Anne Main

Mr Nigel Dodds

Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil	Jon Cruddas	Mr Peter Bone
Jacob Rees-Mogg	Mr David Nuttall	Sir Stuart Bell
Patrick Mercer	Chris Leslie	Michael Connarty
Mr Elfyn Llwyd	Bob Russell	Mr Denis MacShane
Andrew George	Mark Durkan	Mr Andrew Tyrie
Sheila Gilmore	Simon Hart	Tristram Hunt
Mrs Eleanor Laing	Sir Peter Soulsby	Mr Andrew Turner

NC7

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 is amended as follows.

(2)	For section 2(1) substitute—

“(1)	The number of holders of offices specified in Schedule 2 to this Act (in

this section referred to as Ministerial offices) entitled to sit and vote in

the House of Commons at any one time, whether paid or unpaid, must not

exceed 95 if the number of constituencies in the United Kingdom is

650.”.

(3)	After section 2(1) insert—

“(1A)

If the number of constituencies in the United Kingdom decreases below

650, the limit on the number of holders of Ministerial offices entitled to

sit and vote in the House of Commons referred to in section 2(1) must be

decreased by at least a proportionate amount.”.

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(4)	In subsection (2), after “subsection (1)”, insert “or subsection (1A)”.’.

Proportional representation in Parliament

Andrew George

NC8

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	Members of the House of Commons shall have weighted representation in the

House of Commons in respect of each parliamentary vote which a Minister has

announced in the House of Commons shall be a whipped vote.

(2)	The weighted vote of each Member shall be determined by the number of votes

cast for the party they stood for at the time of the last general election divided by

the number of parliamentary seats gained by that party in accordance with the

equation below:

V
S

where V is the total number of first preference votes (under the alternative vote

system) or votes (under the first past the post system) and S is the number of

parliamentary seats secured by the party at the general election.

(3)	For the purposes of this clause a political party is as defined in the Political

Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

(4)	Any Member of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at times other than

a general election will be assumed to have an unweighted single vote.

(5)	An unweighted single vote shall be defined by the following equation
	TV TS

where TV is the total number of votes cast in the general election and TS is the

total number of parliamentary seats represented in the House of Commons

following the general election.

(6)	On those occasions when the Governement determine that the matter which may

divide the House of Commons is not a whipped vote, the weighting of votes shall

not apply.

(7)	If any Member of Parliament decides no longer to take the whip of the political

party for which they are elected at the preceding election their vote shall be

whichever is the less of—

(a)	the weighting of the party whip they adopt; and

(b)	an unweighted single vote.’.

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

Mandatory voting at general elections: amendments

Mr Roger Godsiff

Fiona Mactaggart

Tom Greatrex

NC9

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	All persons on the electoral register in the case of United Kingdom parliamentary

general elections must, unless they have a reasonable excuse, either—

(a)	attend the polling station at which they are to vote on election day during

the hours when the poll is open and receive a ballot paper, or

(b)	request that a ballot paper be sent to them by post.

(2)	Electoral registration officers must issue penalty notices to all persons on the

electoral register for which they are responsible who have not complied with one

of the requirements in subsection (1).

(3)	On receipt of a penalty notice the elector concerned must either—

(a)	pay a penalty of not more than £50, or

(b)	give notice within 28 days of an appeal under the mechanism prescribed

under subsection (5).

(4)	For each complete period of 28 days in which a person sent a penalty notice does

not pay the penalty, the penalty payable shall rise by a further £50.

(5)	The Secretary of State must by order prescribe an appeal mechanism for notices

issued under subsection (2), which must include provision for electors to offer a

reasonable excuse for not complying with subsection (1).

(6)	An order under subsection (5) is to be made by statutory instrument and is subject

to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(7)	Electoral registration officers must comply with any guidance issued by the

Secretary of State about their responsibilities under this section.’.

European parliamentary elections: Saint-Lague method

Caroline Lucas

Jonathan Edwards

NC10

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 shall be amended as follows.

(2)	In section 2, for subsection (6) there shall be substituted—

“(6)	The second and subsequent seats are to be allocated in the same way,

except that the number of votes given to a party to which one or more

seats have already been allocated are to be divided by 2S + 1, where S is

the number of seats already allocated to that party.”.’.

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Revised 11 October 2010