Caroline Lucas is backing a new campaign by Digital Democracy to modernise Parliament by introducing a system of electronic voting for MPs.
The MP for Brighton Pavilion, who called for a more efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly Parliament in her 'The Case for Parliamentary Reform' report in November, supports the organisation's proposal for secure electronic voting to replace the current process.
Caroline said: "I welcome this campaign from Digital Democracy, which recognises that the voting system in the UK Parliament is outdated and inefficient.
"If we are to help more people to engage with the work of their elected representatives in Parliament, we need to shake off the image of the "old boys' club" and drag Westminster into the 21st century.
"An electronic voting system, for example, would make far better use of MPs' time; just queuing up to vote accounts for around £30,000 a week in MPs' salary costs.
"In the last Parliament there were over 1200 votes. Since it takes about 15 minutes per vote, that means an MP with an 85 per cent voting record would have spent over 250 hours queuing to vote during the course of that Parliament - a huge waste of time and money."
Addressing concerns that electronic voting would reduce the amount of time which MPs have to meet with Ministers during the voting process, Caroline said:
"The important benefits of backbenchers meeting Members of the Government in the voting lobbies does not have to be lost if an e-voting system were adopted.
"My suggestion is that MPs would still have to go to the Chamber, but they would do this at a specified time and vote on a number of amendments in sequence with a handheld electronic device, instead of trooping through the Lobbies for every single amendment.
"Making the process of casting votes less time-consuming would make it possible for MPs to vote on more aspects of a Bill. This means the public would have a clearer record upon which to hold MPs to account.
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Notes:
1. http://www.digitaldemocracy.org.uk/debate/debate.php?id=3974
2. Read the report on Caroline's website: http://bit.ly/nzf8Pq