Tweeting and iPad use set for green light inside House of Commons

The House of Commons is set to allow the use of Twitter and hand-held devices including tablets such as the iPad inside the chamber after the Commons Procedure Committee gave the plans the go-ahead.

According to the committee's recommendations, MPs will effectively be bound by the same rules as their counterparts in the House of Lords, which updated its own working practices in January.

"Hand-held electronic devices (not laptops) may be used in the chamber, provided that they are silent, and used in a way that does not impair decorum; members making speeches in the chamber or in committee may refer to electronic devices in place of paper speaking notes; and electronic devices, including laptops, may be used silently in committee meetings, including select committees," the report said.

The committee also said that tweeting directly from inside the chamber should be allowed, given that tweeting from the galleries and "tweeting or blogging about proceedings when watched from outside the chamber" is already allowed.

"Whilst tweeting from inside the chamber is clearly a more sensitive matter, we consider that it would be inconsistent to ban this one practice whilst advocating the approach based on decorum rather than activity which we advocate in this report," the report said.

"We urge all members to use their good sense and behave with courtesy, particularly in not tweeting messages which would be disorderly if said in the House."

It remains to be seen how easy the recommendations will be to enforce, or even how courteous MPs are likely to be given the highly partisan and heated debates that often rage in the Commons chamber. 

However, if the House of Commons agrees to accept the recommendations, it is likely that they will be reviewed after a trial period of a year.