MPs need to clarify their timetable

The ever-perceptive Andrew Sparrow has sifted through the ‘Parliamentary Trends: Statistics about Parliament‘ report so that you don’t have to.  I’d recommend you read his post for the whole series of “12 things you probably didn’t know about Parliament”.  But, given that we’re a couple of weeks into parliamentary recess, it’s this entry which jumped out at me:

“The Commons sits for more days per year than almost any other legislature in Europe. In 2004 MPs sat for 160 days at Westminster. In France the National Assembly sat for 135 days, in Germany the Bundestag sat for 64 days, in Austria the national council sat for 33 days, in Belgium the House of Representatives sat for 45 days, in the Czech Republic the Chamber of Deputies sat for 68 days and in the House of Representatives sat for 97 days. (Jack Straw was whingeing on his blog last week about the fact that these figures almost never get reported in the press.