Committee of the whole House: 18 October 2010

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

“(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

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.’.

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”.’.

Committee of the whole House: 18 October 2010

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

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

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.”.

(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.

Committee of the whole House: 18 October 2010

419

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

(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.’.

Mandatory voting at general elections: amendments

Mr Roger Godsiff

Fiona Mactaggart

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.’.

Committee of the whole House: 18 October 2010

420

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

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.”.’.

Recommendations to the Boundary Commission

Susan Elan Jones

NC11

To move the following Clause:—

‘Where a substantial number of representations proposing changes to the

Commission’s provisional recommendations are received but the Commission

decides not to arrange a public inquiry, the Commission shall request an Assistant

Commissioner drawn from a national panel of independent lawyers, to consider

all written representations together with the provisional recommendations and

publish a summary of the main points and the Assistant Commissioner’s own

recommendations to the Boundary Commission.’.

Commencement: Wales

Susan Elan Jones

NC12

To move the following Clause:—

‘Notwithstanding any provision of this or any other Act, there shall be no change

to the number of boundaries or constituencies in Wales unless the Assembly Act

provisions as defined in Part 4 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 have come

into force.’.

Committee of the whole House: 18 October 2010

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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

Candidates at general elections to the National Assembly for Wales

Jonathan Edwards

Hywel Williams

Mr Elfyn Llwyd

NC17

To move the following Clause:—

‘In section 7 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (Candidates at general

elections), subsections 5 (c) and 6 (c) are repealed.’.

Overseas constituency

Andrew Rosindell

Andrew Percy

Mr Graham Brady

NC18

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)	The 1986 Act after section 1(1) there is inserted—

“(1A)

There shall for the purposes of paraliamentary elections be a constituency

named the Overseas constituency, returning a single member, for British

subjects of Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies who have

expressed a wish to participate in United Kingdom parliamentary

elections.

(1B)	A Boundary Commission may make a report under section 3 of this Act

(Reports of the Boundary Commissions) if in its view the number of

members to be elected from the Overseas constituency should increase,

in which case references in that section to “the part of the United

Kingdom” should be disregarded.

(1C)	If a Boundary Commission mades a report under subsection (1B) of this

Act, sections 3A (Reviews and proposed recommendations by Boundary

Commissions), 4 (Orders in Council) and 5 (Notices) of this Act apply to

that report.

(1D)	Entitlement to vote in the Overseas constituency must be based on the

register prepared under section (2)(1A) of the Parliamentary Voting

System and Constituencies Act 2010.”.’.

Order of the House [6 September 2010]

That the following provisions shall apply to the Parliamentary Voting System and

Constituencies Bill:

Committal

1.	The Bill shall be committed to a Committee of the whole House.

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422

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

Proceedings in Committee

2.	Proceedings in Committee of the whole House shall be completed in five

days.

3.	Standing Order No. 83B (Programming committees) shall not apply to the

proceedings on the Bill in Committee of the whole House.

Consideration and Third Reading

4.	Any proceedings on consideration and proceedings on Third Reading shall be

completed in two days.

5.	Any proceedings on consideration shall (so far as not previously concluded)

be brought to a conclusion at the moment of interruption on the second day.

6.	Proceedings on Third Reading shall (so far as not previously concluded) be

brought to a conclusion at the moment of interruption on that day.

7.	Standing Order No. 83B (Programming committees) shall not apply to

proceedings on consideration and Third Reading.

Other proceedings

8.	Any other proceedings on the Bill (including any proceedings on

consideration of any messages from the Lords) may be programmed.

Parliamentary voting system and constituencies bill

(programme) (no. 2)

The Deputy Prime Minister

That the following provisions shall apply to the Parliamentary Voting System and

Constituencies Bill, in addition to those of the Order of 6 September 2010—

1.	Proceedings in Committee of the whole House shall be taken on each of the

days as shown in the following Table and in the order so shown.

2.	The proceedings shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a

conclusion at the time shown in the third column of the Table.

	Day	Proceedings	Time for
			conclusion of
			proceedings
	First day	Clause 1	10 pm.
	Second day	Schedule 1, Clauses 2 and 3,	10 pm.
		Schedules 2 to 4, Clause 4,
		Schedule 5, Clauses 5 and 6
	Third day	Clause 7, Schedule 6,	10 pm
		Clauses 8 and 9
	Fourth day	Clauses 10 to 13, Schedule 7,	9 pm.
		Clauses 14 to 17.
	Fifth day	New Clauses, New	The moment of
		Schedules, remaining	interruption.
		proceedings on the Bill

Committee of the whole House: 18 October 2010

423

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, continued

NOTICES WITHDRAWN

The following Notices have been withdrawn:

Edward Miliband

Sadiq Khan

Chris Bryant

Mr Peter Hain

131

Clause  9,  page  8,  leave out lines 16 to 31 and insert—

‘1B(1)

Subject to 1C(1) below—

(a)	The number of parliamentary seats in Wales shall not fall below the

minimum level specified by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act

1986, unless and until primary law making powers are transferred to

the National Assembly for Wales under the provisions of the

Government of Wales Act 2006 following a positive vote in a

referendum;

(b)	No constituency shall have an electorate more than five per cent above

or below the electoral quota for that part of the United Kingdom unless

the Boundary Commission concerned believes there to be overriding

reasons under the terms of these rules why it should;

(c)	No constituency shall have an electorate more than 15 per cent above

or below the Electoral Quota for that part of the United Kingdom;

(d)	In England no district or borough ward shall be included in more than

one constitency;

(e)	In Northern Ireland no local authority ward shall be included in more

than one constituency;

(f)	In Wales no unitary authority ward shall be included in more than one

constituency;

(g)	In Scotland regard shall be had to local authority ward boundaries;

(h)	In England the Boundary Commission should where practicable have

regard to the boundaries of counties and London Boroughs and in any

case no constituency shall include the whole or part of more than two

counties or London Boroughs;

(i)	In Wales the Boundary Commission should where practicable have

regard to the boundaries of unitary authorities and in any case no

constituency shall include the whole or part of more than two unitary

authorities;

(j)	A Boundary Commission may have regard to the size, shape and

accessibility of a constituency;

(k)	A Boundary Commission shall have regard to any local ties that may

be broken or respected by proposals that they may make and any

inconveniences attendant upon them.’.

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Revised 18 October 2010