– in the House of Commons am ar 18 Mehefin 1924.
Mr Leslie Hore-Belisha
, Plymouth, Devonport
asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty whether, in view of the facilities afforded to Royal Dockyard employés to visit the Exhibition of 1861, and the privileges being granted by many private employers to their employés to enable them to visit the present British Empire Exhibition, and thus benefit from its educational advantages, he will favourably consider the possibility of granting similar privileges to the present Royal Dockyard apprentices?
Mr Frank Hodges
, Lichfield
I would refer the. hon. Member to my reply of the 1st May to the hon. Member for the Drake Division, and to that given on the 6th May by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for War, to the hon. Member for East Woolwich.
Mr Leslie Hore-Belisha
, Plymouth, Devonport
Has the hon. Gentleman noticed that the question relates to apprentices only, and not to dockyard employés as a whole?
Mr Leslie Hore-Belisha
, Plymouth, Devonport
Did the other question?
Mr Frank Hodges
, Lichfield
It covered them all.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
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.
