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Chair (Terminology)

Let me say, I hope for the last time today, that I deplore the decision made by the Leader of the House to cherry-pick the Procedure Committee's report. She has let the House down by denying it the opportunity to make its own decision on some of the recommendations in that report. I have no difficulty with the motion to make the position that I currently hold an elected one. That is a good idea, which could lead to the office of Chairman of the Procedure Committee having a greater authority, with the Chairman knowing that he is there at the will of the House. Moreover, I hope that any future Leader of the House faced with a unanimous decision of the Procedure Committee would then ensure that there was a debate on all its recommendations. The arguments on most of the motions have been well aired, so I should like to focus on motion 8—a proposal that is before us for the first time. Soon after your election, Mr. Speaker, you announced in a statement to the House that you were convinced that in a modern democracy that puts Parliament first, the choice of the three Deputy Speakers should be determined not by consultation but by the process of election. The Procedure Committee unanimously agrees with you in that view. Following the House's approval of our interim report on the principles to be followed in electing our Deputy Speakers, we have devised a detailed procedure for such elections, which I hope finds favour in all parts of the House. It is based on the existing convention that the four occupants of the Chair should be drawn equally from the Government and Opposition sides of the House, regardless of the exact party proportions in the House, and that there should be at least one man and at least one woman on the team. The Procedure Committee does not see a case at present for an additional Deputy Speaker, a suggestion put forward by the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) and his parliamentary colleagues, but we did think that there was an argument to say that this should be reviewed in the next Parliament, along with any changes that may have occurred to the role of the Deputy Speakers. In our view, the rules for electing the Deputy Speakers should reflect those for electing the Speaker. We believe that there should be a secret ballot, that candidates should be nominated by a minimum number of sponsors and that the names of those sponsors should be published. One point that I wish to highlight is that we did feel that there should be no speeches or hustings on the Floor of the House from Deputy Speaker candidates. That would be inappropriate, as the Deputy Speakers are there to support the Speaker in the Chair, and not to pursue their own agenda. The Procedure Committee did however feel that it would be helpful to Members if candidates for the position of Deputy Speaker were allowed to submit a brief statement, along with their nomination forms, which should be made available to all Members in advance of the ballot. We concluded that the ballot could take place away from the Chamber and be conducted under the single transferable vote system, with the result being announced in the House by the Speaker and entered in the Journal. The newly elected Deputy Speakers could then take up their duties the following day. It was our unanimous view that the Deputy Speakers should be elected at the start of a Parliament for the duration of that Parliament. Our report sets out a procedure for by-elections when a vacancy occurs due to the resignation of one of the Deputy Speakers or the promotion of one of them to the office of Speaker. However, in our view, the terms of office of the Deputy Speakers should run independently of that of the Speaker, and a change in the Speaker should not, in itself, necessitate a change in Deputy Speakers. We took the view that any imbalance in party or gender representation on the panel should be rectified at the next general election.