Download or read book Election of the Speaker and of the Deputy Speakers written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Procedure Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-02-03 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The election of the Speaker in 2009 was the first to be held under the new rules recommended by the Procedure Committee in 2000. The Committee reports satisfaction that it met the test of enabling the House to reach its decision in a fair and transparent way, and the use of the secret ballot was a particular success. Some improvements, though, are recommended: names of sponsors should be published; the minimum number of sponsors should be increased to 15; hustings should be welcomed but should continue to be run by outside organisations; the time allowed for each round of voting should be reduced to 20 minutes to speed up the process. The Committee has also devised a detailed procedure for electing Deputy Speakers reflecting that used for the Speaker, including the secret ballot, a minimum number of sponsors and publication of the names of those sponsors. Candidates should submit a brief statement along with their nomination form instead of speeches or hustings. The existing conventions would continue: the four Deputy Speakers should be drawn equally from the Government and opposition side of the House; there should be at least one man and at least one woman on the team.