Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill — Second Reading — 25 Jan 1999
The majority of MPs voted to reduce the age of consent for homosexual acts from eighteen to sixteen bringing equality to the the law affecting heterosexual and homosexual acts.
The motion supported by the majority of MPs taking part in this vote was:
- That the Bill be now read a Second time:--
A majority of MPs voted for the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill to be read a second time, thus moving it closer to becoming law.
The bill sought to reduce the age at which buggery was legal from 18 to 16. ("Buggery" is the legal term for anal intercourse either between men or between a man and a woman.) It also sought to reduce the age at which other homosexual acts were permitted from 18 to 16.
The House divided: Ayes 313, Noes 130.
Party Summary
Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.
What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.
What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.
What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.
| Party | Majority (Aye) | Minority (No) | Both | Turnout |
| Con | 7 (+1 tell) | 104 (+2 tell) | 0 | 70.4% |
| DUP | 0 | 1 | 0 | 50.0% |
| Independent | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |
| Lab | 275 (+1 tell) | 15 | 0 | 69.8% |
| LDem | 28 | 3 | 0 | 67.4% |
| PC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 25.0% |
| SNP | 2 | 0 | 0 | 33.3% |
| UUP | 0 | 6 | 0 | 60.0% |
| Total: | 313 | 130 | 0 | 69.0% |
Rebel Voters - sorted by constituency
MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division
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