Featured : The plenary hall

20 April 2024

The large room in the House of Representatives with the familiar blue seats is the Plenary Hall. This is where the plenary sittings of the House of Representatives take place.

The large room in the House of Representatives with the familiar blue seats is the Plenary Hall. This is where the plenary sittings of the House of Representatives take place.

The meeting of the House of Representatives that can be attended by all its 150 members is called the plenary sitting. Plenary sittings are held in the large meeting room, the Plenary Hall.

Plenary sitting
A plenary sitting can take place if at least 76 MPs (half plus one of a total of 150) are present in the building of the House of Representatives. This is called the quorum. Much of the work of the House is done in committees, which means that very often, by far not all the seats in the Plenary Hall are occupied. Specialist subjects are often first dealt with in a committee by a small number of MPs who are their political groups' spokespersons on the subject. When the subject is up for debate in a plenary sitting, only the spokespersons are in attendance, as a rule.

Who sits where?
The 150 members of the House of Representatives have been elected to represent the Dutch people. They belong to various political parties. Currently, 10 political parties are represented in the House. 

K: Ministers and state secretaries have their seats in the Cabinet section ('Vak-K' in Dutch). They attend the sitting by invitation from the House of Representatives. The members of the cabinet answer questions from MPs, for instance; they account for policies pursued or to be pursued by the government, or they defend a bill. 

V: The sitting is chaired by the President of the House ('de Voorzitter'). The President is elected by and from among the members.

G: The secretary-general ('Griffier') is in charge of the House's administration. The secretary-general assists the President of the House in applying the procedures of the sitting.

B: The Messengers ('Bodes') transmit messages, for instance among MPs, from MPs to the President or from MPs to members of the cabinet. They also distribute motions put forward by MPs during the debate. Moreover, they provide the speakers with a glass of water.

S: The official reporters of the Parliamentary Reporting Office ('Stenografen') record every meeting verbatim. The report they produce is called Proceedings ('Handelingen' in Dutch). Once every five minutes the reporters take over from each other.

L: In the Box ('Loge') behind the MPs' seats, there is room for:

• Guests, invited by the President of the House, like ambassadors or the president of the National Court of Audit;
• Staff members of political groups. They provide substantive support to MPs;
• Department officials. They are there to provide substantive support to ministers and state secretaries.

P: Public Gallery 

Sittings of the House of Representatives are usually open to the public. Anyone who is interested, can visit a public sitting of the House of Representatives, see: http://www.houseofrepresentatives.nl/visit-us.