Yes.
Evidence of meeting #21 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chamber.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #21 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chamber.
A video is available from Parliament.
1:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House, United Kingdom House of Commons
—and whether it would include Sparks Street or whatever is for Marc to tell you.
1:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House, United Kingdom House of Commons
But it means being within the parliamentary area.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
At the beginning of the presentation, you were saying that you've been watching changes that we've been talking about as well.
What interests you about things that we've been discussing? Are you planning on making amendments to the way that your House operates in England?
1:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House, United Kingdom House of Commons
I might ask Jo very briefly to have a word about the crèche issue, which in my view is the most pressing service issue for us. You have, as I understand it, what you call a nanny system—I know it's not called that—but you can call up someone to come to help, which we don't have.
I'm in the middle of producing a paper for our procedure committee on proxy voting. That follows demands from some members—I don't know how many—for some possibilities of voting while absent beyond those that already exist.
It would also possibly avoid the need to bring in seriously ill members in order to cast a vote by, at the worst, lying in an ambulance in New Palace Yard, with someone coming to visit them. This reputationally hasn't happened for some time, but is very damaging to the House and makes us look ridiculous, as well as being dangerous. There is a prospect of some slight change there.
I'll have Jo say a word about the crèche proposition.
1:05 p.m.
Diversity and Inclusion Programme Manager and Nursery Liaison Officer, United Kingdom House of Commons
What we have is a nursery, which is a full-time facility provided primarily to members of the House of Commons but also to members of the House of Lords, their staff, the House of Commons staff, and the House of Lords staff. It's open 52 weeks of the year, from Monday to Friday. However, we are now getting demands for a more ad hoc crèche service requirement, which the nursery we have in place at the moment doesn't offer.
I was interested in your Parliament and the crèche facility I believe you have, or an ad hoc child care provision you have in place and how that works and how that's benefited your members.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
That's interesting. We're working in parallel, the two Parliaments, and we'll probably have many changes to come.
Thank you, and thank you for your presentations.
1:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House, United Kingdom House of Commons
On the crèche, the particular issue with the crèche for me as the accounting officer is that although I'm keen that we should be family friendly and enable members of all sorts to operate fully as members, I have to be aware the public are watching and will ask, “Why should members get something that I can't get in my working life?” I think I can answer some of those criticisms—[Technical difficulty—Editor]
1:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House, United Kingdom House of Commons
That always happens when I start being controversial.
1:05 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
1:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House, United Kingdom House of Commons
[Technical difficulty—Editor]
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
While we're waiting, committee, on Thursday we're giving instructions on our interim report. I assume the drafting instructions are normally done—
Can you hear us?
1:10 p.m.
Clerk of the House, United Kingdom House of Commons
Yes.
I was going on about the crèche. It's difficult to have a facility that is just there in case somebody might want to use it on a wet Monday night, because you have to have staff, you have to have a physical facility, and it could be that somebody wants to leave a child there either for a short space of time or for a longer space of time, and over widely varying age ranges.
However, I think we can be much more sensitive, including for school holidays. I don't know if this is an issue for you, but I know members here feel strongly about it. If we're sitting, quite a lot of them are joined by children during the school holidays or at half term, and they currently leave them in their offices or with their staff, which isn't ideal for either party. I'm sorry that's a long answer, but I think it describes a challenge for all of us.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Thank you very much. We appreciate this. You have some unique parts of your system that we'll be exploring, and we appreciate your taking the time out of your busy day. We're sorry for the technical glitches and our being late because of the vote, but it all worked out, so thank you very much.
1:10 p.m.
Clerk of the House, United Kingdom House of Commons
Thank you. We will send you what information we can on anything else, but Joanne will no doubt be in touch.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
If you want to know more about our child care, or crèche, Joanne will let you know how it works.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
1:10 p.m.
NDP
