Government Spending (Website) Bill — Quorum not attained — 29 Jun 2007 at 14:23

The Government Spending (Website) Bill would have required the Treasury to create a freely accessible and publicly searchable website containing details of the expenditures by Government departments and executive agencies.^[1]

This Bill is modeled on a law that was passed in the United States in 2006.^[2][3] It was first debated by the Lords before it was transmitted to the Commons without a vote.^[4]

This vote among MPs did not reach the quorum of 40, and since the Usual Channels chose not to reschedule a debate, no further action was taken.

Earlier in the day there was a motion to sit in private in which 40 MPs did vote,^[5] and one Bill that was passed unopposed (without a vote),^[6] while another was also lost due to lack of quorum.^[7]

The lack of progress for this legislation was therefore determined by a combination of scheduling (which is off the record), the decision of whether or not to hold a vote (not apparent from the record), and the widespread lack of attendance by the MPs in the chamber even though there were probably enough of them available on the day.

It is notable that six weeks earlier on a similar Friday afternoon, over a hundred MPs made themselves available to vote through the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill^[8] to exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information Act, following persistent inquiries for details of their expense claims.

• [1] Government Spending (Website) Bill, House of Commons, 2006-07
• [2] David Gauke MP, House of Commons, 29 June 2007
• [3] Federal Funding Accoundability and Transparency Act 2006.
• [4] Baroness Noakes, House of Lords, 26 January 2007.
• [5] Division 167, House of Commons, 29 June 2007.
• [6] Crown Employment (Nationality) Bill, House of Commons, 29 June 2007
• [7] Division 169, House of Commons, 29 June 2007
• [8] Division 119, House of Commons, 18 May 2007

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