Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 25 October 2005.
Caroline Flint
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health)
2:30,
25 October 2005
We have announced our decision to bring in a Bill in this Session that will end smoking in the vast Majority of workplaces and enclosed public places. A major public consultation was carried out over the summer. That has been completed, and we are considering the many thousands of responses before finalising the Bill.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
