Glossary

What the parliamentary terms used on this site mean, in plain English.

The definitions are short and simplified. Parliament's own glossary and the House of Commons Library explain procedure in full.

Kinds of vote

A vote's title often names only the bill or the subject of the debate, so it can look like a vote on a whole policy when it was on an amendment, a timetable or a motion to decline a bill. This site reads the kind of each vote from the motion recorded just before it and the outcome just after. Where the record does not make the kind clear, the vote is shown without one.

Second reading: A vote on the general principles of the bill. The details can still be changed at later stages.
Amendment to decline the bill a second reading: An amendment giving reasons not to pass the bill at this stage. Voting for it is a vote to stop the bill; voting against it lets the bill continue, which is not necessarily support for all of it.
Programme motion: Sets the timetable for the bill's later stages. A vote against may object to the time allowed rather than to the bill.
Money resolution: Authorises spending needed for a bill. Usually a formality once the bill has passed second reading.
Ways and means resolution: Authorises taxes or charges, usually those in a Budget or a bill.
Amendment: A proposal to change the wording of a bill or motion. Voting against an amendment is not necessarily opposition to its aim: it may be rejected as unnecessary, badly drafted or covered elsewhere.
New clause: A proposal to add a new section to the bill. Voting against may reflect the wording, cost or timing as much as the aim.
Whether a clause stays in the bill: A vote on keeping a section of the bill as it stands.
Third reading: The final vote on the bill as amended, before it goes to the other House.
Lords amendment: Whether the Commons accepts a change made by the House of Lords. Bills pass back and forth until both Houses agree.
Commons amendment or reason: Whether the Lords accepts, or insists on its own position against, a change made by the Commons.
Closure motion: A vote to end the debate and decide the matter now, not on the matter itself.
Ten minute rule motion: Asks permission to introduce a backbench bill. Such bills rarely become law; the vote is often about the principle being raised.
Regulations or order: Approves or rejects regulations made under an existing Act. Parliament can only accept or reject them, not amend them.
Regret motion: Expresses concern about regulations but does not stop them.
Opposition day motion: A motion chosen by an opposition party. Governments often abstain, or amend the motion, rather than vote it down; the result is not binding.
Spending estimates: Approves the spending plans of government departments.
Motion: A proposal for the House to agree a view or take an action.

Votes and voting

Division: A formal vote. Members walk through the Aye or No lobbies (Content or Not Content in the Lords) and each member's vote is recorded. Many decisions are taken without a division, when no one objects.
Aye and No; Content and Not Content: The two sides of a vote: Aye and No in the Commons, Content and Not Content in the Lords. This site shows both Houses as Aye and No.
Teller: A member who counts the votes in a division. Tellers do not usually vote themselves.
Whip: A party official who organises members' votes; also the party's instruction on how to vote. A member who loses the whip sits as an independent until it is restored.
Free vote: A vote on which parties give no instruction, often on matters of conscience such as assisted dying. Members of the same party voting differently on a free vote are not rebelling.
Rebellion (on this site): A vote against the majority of the member's own party in that division, using their party on the day. This is the definition used by Public Whip. It cannot tell a free vote from a whipped one.
Abstention: Not voting. Hansard records only who voted, so the record cannot tell a deliberate abstention from absence for another reason, such as illness or a pairing arrangement.

The stages of a bill

A bill goes through the same stages in each House, usually starting in the Commons, and each stage may have one or more votes. The bill pages show each bill's journey.

First reading: The formal introduction of a bill. There is no debate or vote.
Second reading: The first debate on a bill's general principles. If the House votes, it is on whether the bill should continue.
Committee stage: The bill is examined clause by clause and amendments are considered: in a Public Bill Committee, or by the whole House for some bills (a “Committee of the whole House”). In the Lords, committee stage is usually in the chamber or in Grand Committee.
Report stage: The whole House considers the bill as amended in committee and can make further amendments. Also called “consideration”.
Third reading: The final debate and vote on the bill in that House.
Ping-pong: When a bill passes back and forth between the Commons and the Lords until both agree the same text.
Royal Assent: The monarch's formal agreement, which makes a bill an Act of Parliament.
Carry-over motion: Lets a bill continue in the next session of Parliament instead of falling at the end of this one.
Ten minute rule bill: A backbench bill introduced after a speech of up to ten minutes. Few become law, but they draw attention to an issue.
Private member's bill: A bill introduced by a member who is not a minister. Only a few become law, usually with government support.
Parliament Acts: Allow the Commons, in limited cases, to pass a bill without the agreement of the Lords.

The record

Hansard (the Official Report): The record of what is said in Parliament. It is substantially verbatim: repetition and obvious slips are removed, but nothing of substance is changed.
Column: Printed Hansard is numbered in columns, two to a page. A column number is the standard way to cite a speech, as in “HC Deb 12 December 2023, col 851”.
HC Deb and HL Deb: Short forms for House of Commons debates and House of Lords debates, used in citations.
Westminster Hall: The Commons' second debating chamber. Debates there are usually raised by backbench MPs, a minister replies, and no decisions on legislation are taken.
Written question: A question put by an MP or peer to a government department for a written answer. The answer is the government's formal response and is not part of a debate. Each has a reference number (UIN).
Written ministerial statement: An announcement or update from a minister made in writing, without a debate.
Ministerial statement: An announcement made by a minister in the chamber, followed by questions from members.
Urgent question: A question the Speaker allows to be asked the same day, which a minister must come to the chamber to answer.
Public Bill Committee: A committee of MPs that goes through a bill line by line after its second reading, sometimes hearing first from witnesses. Its debates have their own Hansard.
Select committee: A cross-party committee that examines the work of a government department or a subject, taking evidence and publishing reports. In the Commons, most chairs are elected by the whole House.

Other terms

Statutory instrument: Regulations or an order made by a minister under powers in an existing Act. Parliament can approve or reject one, but cannot amend it.
Affirmative and negative procedure: Under the affirmative procedure, regulations need a vote of approval. Under the negative procedure, they become law unless either House votes to annul them (a “prayer”).
Opposition day: A day on which an opposition party chooses the subject of debate. The motions are not binding on the government.
Backbench business: Debates chosen by the Backbench Business Committee on subjects proposed by backbench members of any party.
Early day motion: A motion put down by MPs, usually never debated, used to record a view and gather signatures.
Estimates day: A debate on government departments' spending plans, which the Commons must approve.
Crossbencher: A member of the House of Lords who does not belong to a party group.
Lords Spiritual: The 26 bishops of the Church of England who sit in the House of Lords.
Parliamentary private secretary: An MP who assists a minister. Not a paid ministerial post, but expected to support the government in votes.
Shadow minister: A member of the official opposition who speaks on the same subject as a government minister.