On 22/06/2011 16:56, Christiane Elias wrote:
Pr obably one of the most fascinating and democratic events which have occurred since the Freedon of Information act are the live proceedings of debates both in the House of Commons and the house of Lords which are now availabe on the Par oliamentary site on ~TV. I know that one can pbtain t hese debates in Habsar, but there is nothing quite as fasicinating as to watch the debates live on TV. I do hope that these will continue forever. It truly does make for democracy and one can see who is is actually playing a role in bringing this about.
Parliamentary broadcasting predates the Freedom of Information Act by quite some time, actually. Radio broadcasting started in 1978, and TV in 1989. The FOIA become law in 2000.
Incidentally is there a quorum on the number of members who must be present in both Houses? I think people would be surprised to see how few MP's are sometimes attending the sittings.
The Commons does not have a quorum for presence at a debate. In theory, a debate can take place in the Commons with just two members present, one of which must be the Speaker (or a Deputy Speaker). However, there is a voting quorum of 40 - if fewer than that number of MPs vote, then the relevant agenda item is considered postponed. The Lords has a quorum of three (of which one must be the Lord Speaker or a deputy) for debate and a quorum of 30 for a vote.
A lot of people are surprised by how few MPs (or Peers) are present for the majority of debates, but that surprise is mostly based on a misunderstanding of how parliament works. I blogged about this last year, back when the Digital Economy Bill was being debated and widely commented on in various blogs and forums:
http://mark.goodge.co.uk/2010/04/an-empty-chamber-is-not-an-empty-mind/ Mark -- Sent from my Babbage Difference Engine http://mark.goodge.co.uk http://www.ratemysupermarket.com _______________________________________________ developers-public mailing list [email protected] https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public Unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/archive%40mail-archive.com
