The Representation of the People Act 1981 (c. 34) is an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...
. It creates the provision for the automatic disqualification of an MP if they are imprisoned for over a year, leading to a by-election being held in their constituency.
The text of the Act states that it provides:Following the passage of the
Recall of MPs Act 2015, sitting MPs imprisoned on shorter sentences can be removed from their seats via
recall petitions.
Background
The Act was passed following the election to the Westminster Parliament of an
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...
hunger-striker,
Bobby Sands, in the
April 1981 Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election, while he was serving a long term of imprisonment.
Due to the Act, following the death of Sands other prisoners on hunger strike could not stand in the
second 1981 by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
See also
*
Reform Acts
*
Representation of the People Act
References
External links
* Note examining the history of disqualification provisions applicable to Members of the House of Commons.
Representation of the People Acts
The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1981
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