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House of Representatives                                Ch 14                                                 p 521

Proceedings following the naming of a Member

Following the naming of a Member, the Speaker must immediately put the question, on a motion being made, ‘That the Member [for . . . ] be suspended from the service of the House’. No amendment, adjournment, or debate is allowed on the question. ¹

It is not uncommon for the Chair to withdraw the naming of a Member or for the matter not to be proceeded with after other Members have addressed the Chair on the matter and the offending Member has apologised. ² Such interventions are usually made by a Minister or a member of the opposition executive before the motion for suspension is moved, as it was put on one occasion ‘to give him a further opportunity to set himself right with the House’. ³ The motion for suspension has not been proceeded with at the request of the Speaker, ⁴ when the Speaker stated that no further action would be taken if the Member (who had left the Chamber) apologised immediately on his return, ⁵ when a Member’s explanation was accepted by the Chair, ⁶ when the Chair thought it better if the action proposed in naming a Member were forgotten, ⁷ when the Chair accepted an assurance by the Leader of the Opposition that the Member named had not interjected, ⁸ when the Chair acceded to a request by the Leader of the Opposition not to proceed with the matter, ⁹ when the Member withdrew the remark which led to his naming and apologised to the Chair ¹⁰ and when the Member apologised to the Chair. ¹¹ A suspension motion has not been proceeded with, the Speaker instead directing the Member to leave the Chamber for one hour. ¹² On one occasion the motion for a Member’s suspension was moved but, with disorder in the House continuing, the Speaker announced that to enable the House to proceed he would not put the question on the motion. ¹³

A motion for the suspension of a Member has been moved at the commencement of a sitting following his naming during a count out of the previous sitting. ¹⁴ Although the Chair has ruled that there is nothing in the standing orders which would prevent the House from proceeding with business between the naming of a Member and the subsequent submission of a motion for his suspension, ¹⁵ the intention of the standing order, as borne out by practice, is presumably that the matter be proceeded with immediately without extraneous interruption.

Following the naming of a Member it is usually the Leader of the House or the Minister leading for the Government at the particular time who moves the motion for the suspension of the Member ¹⁶ and the Chair has seen it as within its right at any time to call on the Minister leading the House to give effect to its rules and orders. ¹⁷ The motion for the suspension of a Member has been negatived on two occasions, the first when the Government did not have sufficient Members present to ensure that the motion was agreed to, ¹⁸ and the second when the Government, for the only time, did not support the Speaker and the motion for the suspension of the Member was moved by the Opposition and negatived. The Speaker resigned on the same day because of this unprecedented lack of support. ¹⁹

A suspension on the first occasion is for 24 hours; on the second occasion in the same year, for three consecutive sittings; and on the third and any subsequent occasion in the same year, for seven consecutive sittings. ²⁰ Suspensions for three and seven sittings are exclusive of the day of suspension. A suspension in a previous session or a direction to leave the Chamber for one hour is disregarded and a ‘year’ means a year commencing on 1 January and ending on 31 December. ²¹ There is only one instance of a Member having been suspended on a third occasion. ²²

A Member has been suspended from the service of the House ‘Until he returns, with the Speaker’s consent, and apologises to the Speaker’. ²³ The relevant standing order at that time had a proviso that ‘nothing herein shall be taken to deprive the House of power of proceeding against any Member according to ancient usages’. Members have also been suspended for varying periods in other circumstances—that is, not following a naming by the Chair— see ‘Punishment of Members’ in the Chapter on ‘Privilege’.

Once the House has ordered that a Member be suspended he or she must immediately leave the Chamber. If a Member refuses to leave, the Chair may order the Serjeant-at-Arms to remove the Member. ²⁴ On one occasion, the Speaker having ordered the Serjeant-at-Arms to direct a suspended Member to leave, the Member still refused to leave and grave disorder arose which caused the Speaker to suspend the sitting. When the sitting was resumed, the Member again refused to leave the Chamber. Grave disorder again arose and the sitting was suspended until the next day, when the Member then expressed regret and withdrew from the Chamber. ²⁵

A Member suspended from the service of the House is excluded from the Chamber, its galleries and the room in which the Main Committee is meeting, ²⁶ and may not participate in Chamber related activities. Thus petitions, notices of motion and matters of public importance are not accepted from a Member under suspension. A suspended Member is not otherwise affected in the performance of his or her duties. In earlier years notices of questions have been accepted from a Member after his suspension, ²⁷ although this has not been the recent practice, and notices of motions standing in the name of a suspended Member have been called on, and, not being moved or postponed, have been lost, as have matters of public importance. ²⁸ Suspension from the service of the House does not exempt a Member from serving on a committee of the House. ²⁹ The payment of a Member’s salary and allowances is not affected by a suspension.

Members have been prevented from subsequently raising the subject of a suspension as a matter of privilege as the matter has been seen as one of order, not privilege, ³⁰ and because a vote of the House could not be reflected upon except for the purpose of moving that it be rescinded. ³¹ Members have also been prevented from subsequently referring to the naming of a Member once the particular incident was closed. ³²

A Member, by indulgence of the Speaker, has returned to the Chamber, withdrawn a remark unreservedly and expressed regret. The Speaker then stated that he had no objection to a motion being moved to allow the Member to resume his part in the proceedings, and standing orders were suspended to allow the Member to do so. ³³ On other occasions Members have returned and apologised following suspension of the standing orders ³⁴ and following the House’s agreement to a motion, moved by leave, that ‘he be permitted to resume his seat upon tendering an apology to the Speaker and the House’. ³⁵

S.O. 94(b).

E.g. H.R. Deb. (29.11.01) 8056-7; VP 1970-72/1268; H.R. Deb. (19.10.72) 2955; VP 1983-84/916; H.R. Deb. (4.10.84) 1631; VP 1990-92/1899.

H.R. Deb. (4.7.19) 10464. On occasions the Chair has, initially at least, declined to allow Members to apologise, H.R. Deb. (1.10.12) 3622-3, H.R. Deb. (12.12.12) 6941. On other occasions Members named have been given no opportunity to apologise, H.R. Deb. (27.4.55) 218-21, 222-3; H.R. Deb. (5.6.75) 3404; H.R. Deb. (11.9.80) 1225-6.

VP 1937-40/233.

VP 1973-74/166.

VP 1974-75/109, 256. On the latter occasion the motion for the suspension had been moved but the question had not been put, H.R. Deb. (23.10.74) 2727. On an earlier occasion, a Member having apologised for his conduct after the suspension motion had been moved, the motion was withdrawn, by leave, VP 1970-72/324; H.R. Deb. (24.11.92) 3391. H.R. Deb. (11.8.99) 8386-8.

H.R. Deb. (30.8.62) 943-4.

VP 1964-66/153; H.R. Deb. (15.9.64) 1093.

VP 1964-66/626; H.R. Deb. (23.8.66) 307.

VP 1978-80/342.

VP 1983-84/216; H.R. Deb. (14.9.83) 750.

VP 1998-2001/2509.

H.R. Deb. (18.2.82) 321-4, VP 1980-83/720-1.

VP 1914-17/567.

H.R. Deb. (16.3.44) 1473-4.

The motion has been moved by a Member other than a Minister, VP 1974-75/502, VP 1996-98/360 (no seconder in either case); and has not been moved when it appeared that the Chair did not wish the Minister to do so, H.R. Deb. (27.4.55) 223.

H.R. Deb. (14.7.20) 2710; H.R. Deb. (28.7.20) 3015.

VP 1937-40/223.

VP 1974-75/502-3; and see Ch. on ‘The Speaker, Deputy Speakers and officers’.

Before February 1994 the penalties were 24 hours, 7 calendar days and 28 calendar days.

S.O. 94(d) refers to “the same calendar year”.

VP 1917-19/506—suspended for one month under the rule then applying (until 1963 the count was not recommenced in each calendar year or each Parliament).

VP 1914-17/148, 153. A letter of apology was submitted and accepted at the next sitting later that day.

S.O. 94(f). E.g. VP 1914-17/567; VP 1920-21/213-14, 258-9, 386; VP 1923-24/159; VP 1990-93/757; VP 1996-98/3194-5.

VP 1970-72/76.

S.O. 94(e), e.g. H.R. Deb. (1.12.88) 3667. This standing order (i.e. former S.O. 307) was adopted in the 1963 revision of the standing orders and followed a 1955 resolution to that effect, VP 1962-63/455; H of R 1 (1962-63) 55. Prior to this Members under suspension had on occasions been instructed to leave Parliament House.

NP 38 (6.9.60) 366-7; VP 1960-61/159.

VP 1974-75/788-90; NP 82 (5.6.75) 8523-4; VP 1987-89/527; 1987-89/1273.

May , 22nd edn, p. 399. Redlich comments on the adoption by the House of Commons of a resolution on this matter (later to constitute a standing order) ‘The chief question which was raised upon this rule, and which led to some debate, was whether a suspended member was to be excused from serving upon committees, more particularly upon select committees on private bills. It was correctly argued by several speakers that, if he were so excused, suspension might in some cases afford a refractory member a very pleasant holiday from parliamentary work; it was therefore decided to retain the former practice, i.e. , that suspension should not release a member from the duty of attending committees upon which he had been placed’. Josef Redlich, The procedure of the House of Commons , Archibald Constable, London, 1908, vol. I, p. 182.

VP 1917-19/509.

VP 1946-48/43.

H.R. Deb. (13.12.12) 7032-3.

VP 1970-72/327.

VP 1962-63/461; VP 1964-66/98.

VP 1959-60/15. In this case standing orders should have been suspended to enable the motion to be moved.