House of Lords Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Regulation of behaviour in the chamber==== There are two motions which have grown up through custom and practice and which govern questionable conduct within the House. They are brought into play by a member standing up, possibly intervening on another member, and moving the motion without notice. When the debate is getting excessively heated, it is open to a member to move "that the Standing Order on Asperity of Speech be read by the Clerk". The motion can be debated,<ref name="Asperity of speech">{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldcomp/ldctso06.htm#a61|title=Companion to the Standing Orders and guide to the proceedings of the House of Lords|date=October 2006|at=paragraph 4.58|publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom}}</ref> but if agreed by the House, the Clerk of the Parliaments will read Standing Order 32 which provides "That all personal, sharp, or taxing speeches be forborn".<ref name="Standing Order 32">{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldstords/105/105.pdf|title=The Standing Orders of the House of Lords|date=23 April 2015|publisher=[[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]}}</ref> The Journals of the House of Lords record only four instances on which the House has ordered the Standing Order to be read since the procedure was invented in 1871.<ref name="Asperity instances">See Lords Journal vol. CIII p. 629, vol. CIV p. 381, vol. 182 p. 90, and vol. 231 p. 644 and 648β9.</ref> For more serious problems with an individual Lord, the option is available to move "That the noble Lord be no longer heard". This motion also is debatable, and the debate which ensues has sometimes offered a chance for the member whose conduct has brought it about to come to order so that the motion can be withdrawn. If the motion is passed, its effect is to prevent the member from continuing their speech on the motion then under debate.<ref name="No longer heard">{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldcomp/ldctso06.htm#a62|title=Companion to the Standing Orders and guide to the proceedings of the House of Lords|date=October 2006|at=paragraphs 4.59 and 4.60}}</ref> The Journals identify eleven occasions on which this motion has been moved since 1884; four were eventually withdrawn, one was voted down, and six were passed.<ref name="No longer heard instances">See Lords Journal vol. CXVI p. 162, vol. CXXIII p. 354, vol. 192 p. 231, vol. 215 pp. 200β1, vol. 218 p. 119, vol. 221 p. 539, vol. 225 p. 194, vol. 226 p. 339, vol. 228 p. 308, vol. 229 p. 89, and vol. 233 p. 791.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page