By-elections: why does Westminster not enter the 21st century?

So the Conservatives in Brecon and Radnorshire have re-adopted Chris Davies as their candidate. Given his indication that he would stand again, party backing or no party backing, they clearly felt that there was a danger of the Tory vote being split.

But when will the by-election be? The parliamentary web-site says:

Moving the writ for a by-election

A writ must be moved in the House of Commons to trigger each by-election that takes place. It is customary for a member of the party which previously held the seat to move the writ. Normally, this takes place not long after the seat becomes vacant, so that the seat’s constituents are not left without representation in the House for longer than necessary. Occasionally, however, there may be a significant delay between the vacancy and the by-election, or the vacancy and the issuing of the writ.

It is also possible for the Speaker to issue a writ during a recess period. When this occurs, the Speaker informs the House when it next sits.

Must a writ be moved?

There is nothing in statute law or in Standing Orders obliging the House to move a writ for a by-election. It could choose to leave the seat without representation until the next General Election (General Elections must be held every five years). One of the by-elections listed, North-West Leicestershire, was left vacant until the 2010 General Election some five months later.

On another page of the web-site:

The Chief Whip of the political party whose MP held the vacant seat starts the process of a by-election.

This starts by 'moving the Writ', a motion requesting:

"that the Speaker do issue his Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown to make out a new Writ for the electing of a Member to serve in this present Parliament for the constituency of .... in the room of..."

The Speaker puts the question to MPs to decide whether to agree to the motion.

If MPs agree it becomes an Order for the Speaker. The Speaker then issues a Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown who then sends the writ to the Returning Officer.

It seems to me that there are two anomalies here. First, that the electors of the constituency have no say in the matter and secondly, that while parliamentary legislation and convention is mostly blind to the existence of party or faction, the important function of filling a vacant seat is in the gift of party managers.

Local government legislation gives local residents more rights over principal councils - and note that there is an automatic by-election if a councillor is disbarred by court order:

89 Filling of casual vacancies in case of councillors. (1)Subject to the provisions of this section, on a casual vacancy occurring in the office of councillor for any principal area, an election to fill the vacancy shall be held—
(a) in a case in which the High Court or the council have declared the office to be vacant, within thirty-five days (computed in accordance with section 243(4) below) from the date of the declaration;
(b) in any other case, within thirty-five days (so computed) after notice in writing of the vacancy has been given to the proper officer of the authority by two local government electors for the area.


Rob Orchard, the former BBC political correspondent recalled on Sunday Supplement how he was press-ganged by the corporation into covering the 1985 by-election which Dennis Skinner had shamed the Conservatives into calling and now counted it as one of the highlights of his career. In the debate which prodded the Thatcher government into taking action, some interesting history was revealed. For instance, a 1973 Speaker's Conference on electoral law recommended the present time limit of thirty days within which a writ for a by-election should be moved. This has been incorporated into law, but only in respect of a parliament in recess. It seems to me that there is nothing to prevent a government resisting an embarrassing by-election while the House is sitting, though it is unlikely we will see again the waits of nearly a year which occurred in the 1960s. (On the other hand, the House moved with alacrity to adopt another recommendation of that Conference, the raising of expense limits, with the passing of the Representation of the People Act 1974.)

It should be noted that the Government of Wales legislation states that a by-election must be held within 30 days of a vacancy in a constituency coming to the attention of the Presiding Officer.