HOUSE OF LORDS - United Kingdom Parliament

Any advice or assistance given by the Lord Speaker is subject to the view
of the House as a whole. 1
Conduct in the House
4.11 When the House is sitting, all members should on entering the
Chamber bow to the Cloth of Estate behind the Throne. 2 It is not the
practice to do so on leaving. Members also bow to the Mace in
procession, as a symbol of the authority of the Sovereign. All bows are
made with the head and not the body.
4.12 SO 20(1) declares that members of the House “are to keep
dignity and order, and not to remove out of their places without just
cause, to the hindrance of others that sit near them, and the disorder of
the House”. In practice, this means that members:
must not move about the Chamber while a Question is being put
from the Woolsack or the Chair;
must not pass between the Woolsack (or the Chair) and any
member who is speaking;
must not pass between the Woolsack and the Table; 3
must leave the Chamber quietly at the end of question time.
4.13 If members wish to speak to other members while the House is
sitting, they should go to the Prince’s Chamber. Members should not hold
conversations in the space behind the Woolsack. 4
4.14 Mobile telephones must be silent in the Chamber, Prince’s
Chamber, Peers’ Lobby, division lobbies during divisions, the Moses
Room and committee rooms during committee meetings. 5 In the
Chamber and in committee rooms, pagers or other electronic devices
must not be used to transmit messages to members of the House for use
in proceedings.
4.15 Members should not bring into the Chamber:
1 Procedure 3rd Rpt 2005–06.
2 SO 20(2).
3 Procedure 3rd Rpt 1995–96.
4 SO 21.
5 Also the Library, the Salisbury Room, the Writing Room, and all bars and restaurants.
Elsewhere they may be used with discretion. HL Deb. 31 January 2007 col. WS 15.
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