The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mrs. Alix Boyd Knight has proposed that the Standing Orders be amended to force parliamentarians to spend longer hours in Parliament.
Speaking to a local talk show host, the Speaker said that she has seen Parliamentarians come to the House, bow to the speaker, talk to a few members and leave. As the Standing Orders are presently, a member who behaves in such a manner is deemed to have attended the meeting.
She said, “I definitely would like to bring it to the attention of the new speaker, I’ve done so already in fact, and suggested that efforts be made to bring the Standing Orders in line so that a member has to be in that chamber for a certain percentage of the time. This is a rule that is there, if you miss more than three sittings, you are deemed to have left the Parliament, okay, you are no longer a member. But I’m saying too that there ought to be a Standing Order that says specifically where a member at a meeting has not sat in the chamber for a certain percentage of that time…during the course of that meeting to be deemed to have attended”.
Mrs. Knight thinks this is necessary as parliamentarians need to be in the parliament to deal with the issues of constituents.
