Speaker’s conference

How is a Speaker's conference structured?

There are no rigid guidelines on how a Speaker’s conference should be structured, other than that they are chaired by the Speaker. This is to ensure impartiality, due to the Speaker’s non-partisan position, while their influence also means any recommendations or reports produced by the conference can be brought to the prime minister directly (in the form of command papers).

Speakers’ conferences have similar powers to Commons select committees in that they can request documents and call witnesses for oral evidence. They are not bound to the procedures of select committees, however, and have the discretion to operate under the Speaker’s guidance. 

Early conferences included members from both the Commons and the Lords, but since 1944 Speakers’ conferences have drawn only on the Commons. There is no set formula for the selection of members – the Speaker will select from sitting MPs, and by convention the conference should reflect the party distribution in parliament at that time. Neither is there a strict cap on the number of members (as opposed to select committees, which are capped at 11). Early conferences consisted of as many as 29 MPs and three to five peers. The two most recent conferences have each had 15 members.

What kind of topics have previous conferences covered?

Early conferences were mostly concerned with franchise or electoral reform, such as the redistribution of seats and wartime voting. The establishment of the Electoral Commission in 2000 (an independent body to provide impartial advice on electoral reform) allowed conferences held since to address alternative topics, from representation and diversity in the Commons to the employment conditions of MPs’ staff.

What did the most recent Speaker’s conference address?

The most recent conference, initiated by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle in 2022, was established following serious allegations of misconduct, bullying and harassment in the House of Commons. The conference consisted of 15 MPs (nine Conservative, four Labour, one Liberal Democrat, one SNP) plus the Speaker as chair. 

It looked into the contractual details of the employment of MPs’ staff, and whether these should be changed. The conference was also tasked with investigating how any proposed changes to employment arrangements could provide better support for MPs’ staff and cultivate a more “inclusive and respectful environment”.

It was an opportunity for members to reflect on their own staffing arrangements, as Peter Wishart said:  

“The conference is a good innovation, which the whole House will welcome. There is a huge opportunity for whoever is on the Committee and all the political parties of the House to design and craft the type of working arrangements that best suit the unique environment in which we all work.” ⁶ https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-06-22/debates/B9EEDE88-AF52-4343-9545-CDEBD01A3133/Speaker%E2%80%99SConference  

The conference concluded that staff should continue to be employed by members but that more of an effort was needed to champion the work done by staff. It made a series of recommendations including an increase in the support available to the staff of MPs in the form of an expanded Members’ Service Team (MST) and that staff salaries and other office costs be published separately from MPs’ expenses and that training and travel for staff be published as a whole rather than per MP. 

MPs welcomed the recommendations in a debate in November 2023, particularly the proposed expansion of the MST. In January 2024, the House of Commons Commission agreed to establish a team to oversee the implementation of all the recommendations put forward.

What has been the impact of Speakers’ conferences?

The impact of Speakers’ conferences over the years has been varied, with some resulting in major reforms and others concluding with no specific recommendations.

For example, the 1929-30 conference on reform of the electoral system failed to publish a report. Members complained of the large size of the conference preventing it from coming to a consensus.

The 1977-79 conference was more successful. It was tasked with addressing Northern Ireland’s underrepresentation in the House of Commons, and recommended that the number of seats in Northern Ireland be increased from 12 to 17. The government took this on board, raising the number to 17 for the 1983 general election (there are 18 today).

While the 2008 conference on diversity of parliament did not result in any concrete changes, it initiated a conversation surrounding parliamentary representation, which was carried forward by The Good Parliament report of 2016. ⁸ https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/news/2016/july/20 Jul Prof Sarah Childs The Good Parliament report.pdf