House of Commons

This page highlights some of the current parliamentary material available on the House of Commons. This includes select committee reports, briefing papers on current legislation and other subjects produced by the parliamentary research services, and the latest Early Day Motions put down by MPs.

Standard Notes

Date	Description
11.02.2013	PIL: Opposition Day Debates 2010 - present
	Opposition Day debates
11.02.2013	PIL: Free Votes
	Free votes in the House of Commons
11.02.2013	PIL: Number of House of Commons Divisions
	This PIL lists the number of Commons divisions since 1945-46.
30.01.2013	House Business Committee
	In November 2009, the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons recommended the establishment of a House Business Committee to 'assemble a draft agenda to put to the House in a weekly motion'. On 4 March 2010, the House approved the establishment of a House Business Committee in the current Parliament.
29.01.2013	Select Committees - core tasks
	On 20 June 2002, the members of the Liaison Committee agreed a set of ten core tasks for Select Committees to guide their work. In November 2012 the Liaison Committee published a report, Select Committee, effectiveness, resources and powers in which it proposed changes to the current core tasks. This note compares the 2012 version to the 2002 version of the core tasks with a number of earlier proposals and provides a brief background to the introduction of the core tasks in 2002.

Research Papers

Date	Description
11.11.2010	Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill 2010-11: Commons Stages
	This Paper summarises all Commons stages of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill 2010-11. It supplements Research Paper 10/55 which was produced for the Bill's Second Reading and replaces Standard Note 5697 'Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill: Progress of the Bill'. No major changes were made during the passage of the Bill in the Commons, but the text of the referendum question was altered and legislative provision was made for the combination of polls on 5 May 2011.
01.09.2010	The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill [Bill 63 of 2010-11]
	This Paper has been prepared for the Second Reading debate in the House of Commons. The Bill seeks to enable the next general election to be fought under the Alternative Vote system, provided this change is endorsed in a referendum on 5 May 2011 and boundary changes have been made to reduce the size of the House of Commons to 600. New rules for the redistribution of seats are designed to give primacy to numerical equality in constituencies and regular redistributions would take place every five years.
25.02.2010	Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill: Committee stage report
	There were some significant amendments during the Committee Stage of this Bill. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority was given control over setting Members' pay and pensions by amendments to the Parliamentary Standard Act 2009. There is to be a new Compliance Officer to investigate alleged misuse of Members' allowances; amendments would ensure that all MPs and peers would be liable to UK taxes; there would be a referendum on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote by 31 October 2011; and a new requirement on Returning Officers to begin election counts four hours after a general election poll closes.
15.06.2009	The Departmental Select Committee System
	On 25 June 1979 the House of Commons agreed to establish a new system of departmental select committees to scrutinise the expenditure, administration and policy of government departments. This paper briefly sets out the historical background to the departmental select committees system before charting their development over the last 30 years, considering evaluations made of the system and recent proposals for reform.
01.02.2008	Election Statistics: UK 1918-2007
	This paper has been superseded by Research Paper 12/43, UK Election Statistics: 1918-2012.

Select Committee Reports

Date	Description
08.02.2012	2010 elections for positions in the House.
	Government response. Procedure Select Committee report [Commons]
26.10.2011	Lay membership of the Committee on Standards and Privileges.
	Procedure Select Committee report [Commons]
19.10.2011	2010 elections for positions in the House.
	Procedure Select Committee report [Commons]
27.07.2010	House of Commons Commission and Administration Estimate Audit Committee report for 2009-10.
	House of Commons Commission report [Commons]
21.07.2010	The work of committees in session 2008-09.
	Government response. House of Commons Liaison Committee report [Commons]

Early Day Motions

Date	Description
13.12.2011	HOUSE OF COMMONS CHEFS
	That this House congratulates the House of Commons chefs' football team on successfully retaining The State Opening Challenge Cup after a hard fought 2-2 draw against hon. Members on15 ...
05.12.2011	PROPOSED COMMONS TWITTER HASHTAG
	That this House notes that it is important to keep up with modern communication techniques; further notes that hon. Members are now allowed to tweet from the Chamber; believes that ...
30.06.2011	GENDER AND FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION RULES
	That this House calls on the Football Association (FA) to abandon their outdated rules, which deny membership of the House of Commons football team to all hon. and Rt hon. lady Members; ...
28.06.2011	HOUSE OF COMMONS ATTENDANTS AND HON. MEMBERS' POST
	That this House is concerned at the intentions of the House of Commons Commission to remove the delivery of hon. Members' post from attendants to the Royal Mail; praises the hard work ...
11.05.2011	TRIBALISM IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
	That this House notes that the success of any non-Government or Opposition amendment to proposed legislation, if pressed to a vote, is regarded as a likely occasion for lamentation, ...

Lords Library Notes

Date	Description
09.11.2010	Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (HL Bill 26 of 2010-11). LLN 2010/028
	Parliamentary Voting System and Constitutencies Bill. House of Lords Library Note 2010/028