[Greg Pope]

To claify a couple of points that have come up: firstly, I am opposed to this Bill and would have voted against it. The reason it came up on a Friday is because that is the day of the week set aside for Private Members' Bills - turnout is always low on these days for a couple of reasons, partly because they are unwhipped (MPs don't have to be there), partly because they stand virtually no chance of becoming law (i.e. it is potentially a waste of time), and partly because MPs usually have constituency engagements of Fridays. There is a quorum for the house of Commons which has to be demonstrated by the number of MPs voting (rather than present in the chamber for a debate) and it is 40, made up of 1 person in the chair (Speaker or Deputy), 4 tellers (to count the vote) and 35 voting MPs; previously this could be tested by shouting "I spy strangers" which would force a vote - I could bore you with the history of this dating back to the English Civil War but I won't! Suffice to say it has now been 'modernised'. As has been pointed out there are currently 646 MPs, a reduction of 13 from the last Parliament as the number of Scottish MPs has been reduced following devolution.

Despite all the assurances about the Data Protection Act, some MPs' correspondence regarding constituents has ended up in the public domain so there is a problem that needs sorting. Finally, it is not quite true that the House of Commons will be exempt from the smoking ban - the building is royal palace and as such has crown privilege (which technically exempts it from the ban). The Commons itself has voted to ban smoking everywhere in the building from 1st July, the same day the law comes into effect.