– in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 30 April 1964.
Sir Harry Hylton-Foster
, Cities of London and Westminster
Would the hon. Member be good enough to assist me? I do not for the moment follow why the question he is raising would depend on the House deciding this Amendment one way or the other. Perhaps I have missed something, but if he would help me about that I would understand.
Mr. Gresham Cooke:
In paragraph (e) the Middlesex area for the administration of justice is defined as—
the London boroughs of Barnet, Brent…and Hounslow.
Hounslow adjoins my Constituency, and within Hounslow are both Brentford and Feltham. At the moment those are the magistrates' courts to which my constituents go. I am asking my right hon. Friend whether, resulting from this administration, the magistrates' courts will be in Richmond or in Hounslow.
What is the position about quarter sessions? Will they be held in Kingston upon Thames? I assume that Middlesex Quarter Sessions will be abolished. From the point of view of assizes, Twickenham is now part of the Greater London Council, the Metropolitan Police Area. Will the Old Bailey still be our assize court?
Twickenham has not got a police court at the moment. It is a very large borough, larger than Oxford. It is high time that Twickenham had its own magistrates' court. It is inconvenient to go to Brentford or Feltham for the administration of justice. Richmond may be too small a court to take all our cases. I should be very much obliged if my right hon. Friend would clear up what is to happen to my constituents when they give evidence or otherwise go to the petty sessional court.
Mr Henry Brooke
, Hampstead
I am not sure whether I can keep in order in answering the questions asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Mr. Gresham Cooke). I can assure him that the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey will have its area enlarged to cover the whole of Greater London.
My hon. Friend is particularly interested in the Order which it will fall to me to make in due course dividing up the Commission areas into petty sessional divisions. I appreciate that the present borough of Twickenham is divided between two petty sessional divisions. So far as I can see, both these divisions will themselves be divided by the boundary of the Middlesex and the South-East London areas. It is clear that some rearrangement will be necessary. My present idea is to provide in the Order that there should be a new Twickenham Division of the South-West London area, a division which will be co-extensive with the existing borough. My hon. Friend will appreciate that I have to have certain consultations before making the Orders. I will naturally pay attention to anything which is communicated to me on that, but that is the proposal which is at present in my mind.
As to quarter sessions, it is proposed that the Middlesex area quarter sessions should be held at Middlesex Guildhall for the time being.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
