Sports Grounds Safety Authority Bill — That the House Sit in Private — 4 Mar 2011 at 09:30

The majority of MPs rejected a motion "That the House sit in private".

Jonathan Lord MP moved: "That the House sit in private", then voted against his own motion. The vote was declared "not decided" because less than 40 MPs voted.

Standing Order[1] No. 163 states once a motion to sit in private has been moved it must be "forthwith put" ie. the speaker or the chair must straight away ask MPs if they agree or not and if necessary proceed to a vote. Standing order 163 also states a motion to sit in private may only be moved once per sitting. The fact the vote was not decided is was not important, the fact that it was moved is all that matters.

This motion was moved shortly after Parliament began its day's sitting at 0930, this had the effect of preventing it being used later in the day. If the motion had been moved later in the day and less than 40 MPs had voted in the resulting division under standing order 41 the debate in progress would have been "stood over" ie. stopped, and resumed at the next sitting of the house.

It is likely that the aim of the motion was to ensure the passage of Jonathan Lord MP's private members bill, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority Bill 2010-11[1] was not impeded by a motion to sit in private while it was being debted. ie. the this motion shows that Jonathan Lord MP was very keen on seeing his bill continue on its path to becoming law.

Had Johnathan Lord not moved this motion, and there had been few MPs available to vote (as there often are on Friday mornings when Private Members Bills are being debated) the passage of his Bill could have been at least delayed by the tabling of motion to sit in private. He may not have obtained another slot in the Parliamentary timetable to try again to get his bill through.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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All Votes Cast - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party are marked in red. Also shows which MPs were ministers at the time of this vote. You can also see every eligible MP including those who did not vote in this division.

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Peter BoneWellingboroughCon (front bench)tellaye
Philip HolloboneKetteringCon (front bench)tellaye
James BrokenshireOld Bexley and SidcupCon (front bench)no
Simon BurnsChelmsfordCon (front bench)no
Rehman ChishtiGillingham and RainhamConno
Christopher ChopeChristchurchCon (front bench)no
Greg ClarkTunbridge WellsCon (front bench)no
Therese CoffeySuffolk CoastalConno
Stephen CrabbPreseli PembrokeshireCon (front bench)no
Jonathan DjanoglyHuntingdonCon (front bench)no
James DuddridgeRochford and Southend EastCon (front bench)no
Philip DunneLudlowCon (front bench)no
Michael FallonSevenoaksCon (front bench)no
David GaukeSouth West HertfordshireCon (front bench)no
Nick GibbBognor Regis and LittlehamptonCon (front bench)no
Mark HarperForest of DeanCon (front bench)no
Charles HendryWealdenCon (front bench)no
Nick HurdRuislip, Northwood and PinnerCon (front bench)no
Greg KnightEast YorkshireCon (front bench)no
Jonathan LordWokingContellno
Mike PenningHemel HempsteadCon (front bench)no
John RandallUxbridge and South RuislipCon (front bench)no
Jacob Rees-MoggNorth East SomersetCon (front bench)tellno
Andrew RobathanSouth LeicestershireCon (front bench)no
Hugh RobertsonFaversham and Mid KentCon (front bench)no
Chloe SmithNorwich NorthCon (front bench)no
Julian SmithSkipton and RiponConno
Bill WigginNorth HerefordshireCon (front bench)no
Vernon CoakerGedlingLab (minister)no
Tony CunninghamWorkingtonLab (minister)no
Jim FitzpatrickPoplar and LimehouseLab (minister)no
Huw Irranca-DaviesOgmoreLab (minister)no
Graham JonesHyndburnLab (minister)no
Ian LucasWrexhamLab (minister)no
Andrew SlaughterHammersmithLab (minister)no
Valerie VazWalsall SouthLab (minister)no
Jeremy BrowneTaunton DeaneLDem (front bench)no
Steve WebbThornbury and YateLDem (front bench)no

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