Procedure Committee welcomes planned extension of proxy voting pilot scheme
17 July 2020
The House of Commons Procedure Committee has welcomed the tabling by the Government of a motion to extend the duration of the House's pilot scheme for proxy voting in divisions.
The Chair of the Procedure Committee, Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, wrote to the Leader of the House, Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, earlier this week to advise an extension to the proxy voting pilot until 28 September 2020.
The brief extension is intended to allow the Procedure Committee to complete its review of the proxy voting pilot introduced in January 2019. This review has been broadened to include the recent decision of the House to extend the proxy voting facility to MPs absent from the House for coronavirus-related reasons.
The Government has now tabled a motion for the House to consider on Monday [20/07/20]. If agreed to, this would extend the pilot scheme until Monday 28 September 2020.
Chair's comments
Chair of the Procedure Committee, Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP said:
“The Procedure Committee welcomes the decision from the Government to facilitate a short extension to the proxy voting pilot.
“This provides certainty to MPs who are new parents that they can continue to have their vote recorded when they are absent from the House, and also provides continuing certainty to those MPs who are prevented from coming to Westminster for reasons related to the pandemic.
“Should the House approve the motion on Monday, the proxy voting pilot scheme will continue until 28 September. The Committee expects to provide its assessment of the pilot in early September: this report will inform the House's consideration of any proposal to make the pilot scheme permanent.”
The proxy voting pilot was started in January 2019, initially for a period of 12 months, and the Procedure Committee was asked to review the pilot within this period. Parliament was dissolved soon after that Committee launched its review, and in January 2020 the House extended the pilot for six months to allow the new committee to conclude a review and to report its findings.
The coronavirus pandemic and the recent use of proxy voting for pandemic-related reasons has led to a broadening of the scope of the Committee's review and the present proposal for a short additional extension.
Find our more information about the pilot and the Committee's inquiry on the Procedure Committee website here.
Further information
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