Division Bell - in The United Kingdom

In The United Kingdom

The bell is used in the local neighbourhood of the Parliament to signal a division is occurring and that members in the Commons or in the House of Lords have eight minutes to get to the appropriate Division Lobby to vote for or against the resolution. The call for a Division is also displayed on the Annunciator screens throughout the Parliamentary buildings.

Because of the time allowance MPs may, in fact, be in nearby offices, restaurants, pubs or shops, some of which will have their own division bells connected to those within the confines of the Parliament's buildings, others will use a system of pagers co-ordinated by the Whip's office of each party.

The headquarters of the major parties are all within the reach of the division bell and this area roughly defines the geographical limits of the Westminster Bubble.

The BBC Antiques Roadshow from The Banqueting House in Whitehall featured the original Division Bell Transmitter (serial number 1) from The House of Commons. Their expert Paul Atterbury, with the help of former Speaker of The House Baroness Betty Boothroyd, demonstrated the apparatus in use with one of the original Division Bells. The Show was first seen in October 2007, where the transmitter was valued at £15,000.

Three Division Bell Transmitters were made at the end of the 19th century by The GPO at the request of The Government. They were numbered 1, 2 and 3. Two were destroyed by a bomb in 1941 and replaced with copies bearing the numbers 4 and 5. Number 5 transmitter exists, but the whereabouts of number 4 is not known.