European Union Bill — Clause 6 — Decisions requiring approval by Act and by referendum — 25 Jan 2011 at 20:30

Stewart Jackson MP, Peterborough voted not to clarify there is no requirement for both a referendum and an Act of Parliament before powers relating to EU patents can be transferred from the UK to the EU.

The majority of MPs voted against clarifying that there is no requirement for both a referendum and an Act of Parliament before powers relating to EU patents can be transferred from the UK to the EU.

Speaking during the debate Labour MP Emma Renyolds, who proposed the amendment which this division was on, said[1]:

  • "Labour Members judge that this measure, if successful, would be an extremely important move to help British business protect its intellectual property rights, at least within the 12 member states entering into the enhanced co-operation procedure, as it stands."

The Minister for Europe stated[2]:

  • "The policy on the patent is already subject to qualified majority voting, apart from two areas that are subject to unanimity. We propose that those should require an Act of Parliament, not a referendum."

The Minister appears to be correct, matters related to intellectual property are covered in clause 7(c) of the European Union Bill[3]

All the Labour amendment would have done, if anything, was clarify the situation.

The clause of the bill the amendment would have affected was clause 6[4] paragraph (4)(j). This clause lists one of the classes of areas where a "lock" is in place to prevent the UK giving powers to Europe without a referendum.

The paragraph originally stated:

  • a decision under the provision of Article 333(2) of TFEU[5] (enhanced co-operation) that permits the adoption of the ordinary legislative procedure in place of a special legislative procedure, where— ..."

The defeated amendment would have after '(enhanced co-operation)', inserted:

  • 'except in the field of EU patents'.

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Debate in Parliament | Source |

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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.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Alliance1 00100.0%
Con278 (+1 tell) 0091.2%
DUP7 0087.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent1 00100.0%
Lab0 204 (+2 tell)079.8%
LDem47 (+1 tell) 0084.2%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
SNP0 5083.3%
Total:334 215085.9%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

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

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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