Speaker of the House Alban Bagbin has proposed stricter measures to deal with the issue of lawmakers arriving late.

The Chamber’s entrances will be locked at 10:00 AM on sitting days starting in the following year. Late-arriving MPs will not be allowed back in until the Speaker opens the doors once more.

The Speaker has proposed that sittings begin at 2:00 PM as an alternative to the current 10:00 AM timetable. Committees would be able to meet in the morning and have reports ready for review in the afternoon as a result.

Recognizing that it was challenging to attend early sessions, Bagbin urged the two caucuses to talk and come up with other ideas.

He stressed that the suggested actions would take effect at the next session if a consensus could not be reached.

On Friday, December 8, Speaker Alban Bagbin informed lawmakers of this.

“At 10 am, the doors will be locked. The Speaker will be in and it will take some time before the doors will be opened. Not that they won’t be opened but it will take some time. And so if you are not able to comply with it, let us all agree that we will start sitting in the afternoon, from 2 p.m. or 4 p.m.; the Committees will have their meetings in the morning; reports will be ready for us to consider in the afternoon; and then by the time we adjourn around 8 p.m., the traffic situation will have improved.

“Your coming to Parliament too will not be that early, so you can decide to leave at noon and by that time, there would have been less traffic and you won’t consume more fuel and then you can come in. I can see that it is not easy for members to report that early for sitting so the two Caucuses either have joint Caucus meetings or, at your level, discuss these things and come back with proposals. If not, these are the measures that I want to put in place which will take effect from our next meeting.”