On Thursday 4 June the House approved motions allowing limited
continued virtual participation in House of Commons business. The
new arrangements are expected to allow Members who are at
particularly high risk from Coronavirus to apply for proxy votes,
new arrangements will also allow some Members to participate
remotely in questions, UQs and statements.
Voting this week
On 21 April MPs voted to introduce a hybrid system,
allowing them to participate in the Chamber either in person or
remotely, and also allowing them to cast their votes remotely.
The motion allowing hybrid proceedings to take place lapsed on 20
May, meaning that remote voting is no longer possible.
Public Health England has indicated that voting using the
division lobbies was not acceptable under social distancing
restrictions. Following this, on Monday, the Speaker wrote to all
MPs outlining a proposed socially-distanced voting system, which
was used under his authority for the first time on Tuesday 2
June.
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Read the Speaker’s letter to MPs here. You can also find
the wording of the Government motion and the amendments tabled
by the Procedure Committee in the Speaker’s letter.
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Read the Guidance for MPs on voting here
Motions approved on Thursday 4 June
The House approved a motion to extend proxy voting
arrangements so they apply to Members who are unable to attend
Westminster because they are at high risk from Coronavirus as
they are either in a ‘clinically vulnerable group’ or ‘clinically
extremely vulnerable’ group. You can find more details on these
groups and definitions on the Public Health England
website.
MPs in these categories will shortly be able to apply to
the Speaker for a proxy vote. More information about how to
do this will be available soon.
A second motion also allows for some Members to continue to
participate virtually in proceedings on Questions, UQs and
Statements. This Speaker will permit this for Members who have
self-certified that they are unable to attend Westminster for
medical or public health reasons related to Coronavirus. In a
letter sent to MPs on Friday 5 June, the Speaker set out some of
the guidelines around self-certification and who is
eligible.
The letter details how virtual participation will be open
to Members in the “clinically vulnerable” groups, as well as
Members who are self-isolating, or who have parental or caring
responsibilities. MPs will be able to self-certify by contacting
the Speaker’s office directly. You can read the full letter from
the Speaker here.
The motion will have effect until Tuesday 7 July. It will
be for the Government to decide if they want to table a motion to
extend these arrangements beyond this date.
The arrangements, set out in the wording of the motions
(full
text available here – page 5 onwards),
will not come into effect until Monday 8 June.
Dial-in procedural briefing, Monday 8 June 13:30 –
14:00
The House of Commons and House of Lords Media Relations
teams invite to you a weekly off-the-record, unattributable
briefing on the week’s business in the House of Commons, House of
Lords and Select Committees.
The briefing will be delivered by members of both Houses’
communications teams and will take place as a dial-in, using the
following details:
Please call 020 3321
5213 and enter 760643800# when prompted.
The briefing will be off-the-record, by which we mean it is
intended to inform your reporting and planning, but you cannot
quote from it or reference Parliamentary sources. Our aim is to
ensure you have access to accurate and impartial information
about Parliamentary business and procedures.
Further information
