In the event of a tie in a division, the Speaker or Deputy Speaker has the responsibility of giving a casting vote to decide the question. In doing so there are rules as to which side should receive the casting vote. The Speaker should vote so as not to decide the question - in other words, to give the House the opportunity for further debate on an issue. Therefore, if there is a tie on a division such as a Second Reading vote, where failure would kill the Bill being debated, the Speaker will always vote to continue the Bill.
Another rule was established by Speaker Denison in 1867 on the occasion of the tie on Trinity College Fellowships. Denison, giving his casting vote against the motion, declared that any decision must be approved by the majority. The final rule is that the Speaker, in any division upon a bill, should vote to leave a bill in its existing form. This rule saved the 1974-79 Labour government from several defeats. The tie on the Regency Bill in 1910 appears to be a counter-example to this precedent, but the effect of the amendment was to replace words in the Bill which had been deleted in committee. Nevertheless this example of the casting vote has been regarded as a ‘questionable precedent’ (in the words of Erskine May).
Of the divisions listed below, some occurred on motions which were highly politically charged. The impeachment of Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, in 1805 severely damaged William Pitt’s second government. Melville had been criticized in the tenth report of a long-running inquiry by the Naval Commissioners of Inquiry for misuse of public money when he had been Treasurer of the Navy several years before; Pitt had appointed Melville knowing the report was hanging over him, and was reduced to tears when the censure was carried. This remains the last impeachment to have taken place, though Melville was eventually acquitted.
More recently the reported tie in the vote on the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty was the culmination of a long campaign to prevent ratification by Conservative backbenchers during the government of John Major. This vote has the highest overall participation of MPs of any division resulting in a tie. The confusion which led to a Conservative teller counted one more MP voting No is rather more common than many imagine, but such a mistake is rarely corrected where the division has resulted in a substantial win for one side. The errors in the divisions on 11th July 1974 were of a different order: they were caused by the Labour whips’ misuse of the procedure whereby an ill MP who is in Parliament may be counted as voting. On this occasion one of the MPs who was ‘nodded through’ was not on the Parliamentary estate at the time and should not have been counted as voting.
In the table below the column headed ‘Speaker’ shows how the Speaker or Deputy Speaker cast their vote.
| Date | Result | Speaker | Question |
|---|
| 13th March 1801 | 37-37 | Y | Motion that Mr Speaker do leave the chair (and therefore that the House go into Committee) on the bill to relieve certain persons from the poor rates. |
| 8th April 1805 | 216-216 | Y | Motion to put the question on the charges against Viscount Melville. |
| 5th June 1811 | 36-36 | Y | Motion for an inquiry into causes of delays in Suits in the High Court of Chancery. |
| 18th May 1813 | 104-104 | Y | Motion for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the Leather tax so far as it applies to Hides and skins. |
| 16th May 1817 | 79-79 | Y | Motion to agree with the committee on an amendment to the Truro Roads Bill. |
| 19th May 1817 | 60-60 | Y | Motion that the Westminster Coal-Meters Bill do now pass. |
| 21st April 1818 | 46-46 | N | Motion for a report on the accounts of the High Bailiff of Westminster. |
| 3rd April 1821 | 19-19 | N | Motion to give a second reading to the Blackfriars Bridge Bill now, and not in three months. |
| 14th June 1821 | 26-26 | Y | Motion to consider amendments to the Cattle Ill-Treatment Bill immediately, not in three months. |
| 26th May 1826 | 62-62 | Y | Motion to put the question in a debate on a resolution relating to the procedure for dealing with bribery at elections. |
| 1st May 1828 | 33-33 | Y | Second reading of the Hibernian Joint Stock Company Bill. |
| 25th June 1834 | 35-35 | Y | Amendment to the Highways Bill. |
| 18th July 1834 | 33-33 | Y | Motion to retain wording of the Lord’s Day (No. 2) Bill. |
| 23rd June 1837 | 41-41 | Y | Motion to give a third reading to the Caoutchouc Company Bill now, and not in six months. |
| 7th June 1838 | 53-53 | N | Motion for an humble address to Her Majesty praying that she will appoint an engineer to report on the best line for a railway between Edinburgh and Glasgow and the North of England. |
| 20th June 1838 | 111-111 | N | Motion to proceed with amendments to the Small Debts (Scotland) Bill, and not recommit it. |
| 17th July 1840 | 58-58 | Y | Motion to adjourn debate on the Farnham Rectory Chapels Bill. |
| 25th March 1841 | 58-58 | N | Motion for a prayer to Her Majesty the Queen to urge her to consider the cases of all persons confined in England for political offences. |
| 30th March 1843 | 47-47 | Y | Motion for leave to bring in a bill to establish a court for marriages and divorces. |
| 9th May 1846 | 47-47 | N | Amendment to exclude consideration of attempts to prevent evidence of bribery and treating from arising from the committee examining the Bridport election petition. |
| 14th July 1847 | 54-54 | Y | Motion to give a second reading to the Parliamentary Electors Bill now, and not in three months. |
| 6th May 1851 | 159-159 | Y | Motion to go into committee on consideration of the current means of levying duty on Home-made spirits in bond. |
| 10th May 1860 | 37-37 | N | Amendment to the Fisheries (Scotland) Bill. |
| 19th June 1861 | 274-274 | N | Motion to give a third reading to the Church Rates Abolition Bill now, and not in three months. |
| 24th July 1862 | 53-53 | Y | Motion to disagree with a Lords Amendment to the Juries Bill. |
| 1st July 1864 | 170-170 | Y | Third reading of the Tests Abolition (Oxford) Bill. [After the third reading, the question that the bill do now pass was divided upon and negatived 171-173] |
| 7th June 1866 | 46-46 | Y | Motion that Mr. Speaker do leave the Chair (and therefore that the House go into Committee) on the Transubstantiation Etc. Declaration Abolition Bill. |
| 24th July 1867 | 108-108 | N | Motion to declare the undesirability of restricting Fellowships at Trinity College, Dublin to believers in the established church. |
| 10th June 1868 | 123-123 | Y | Motion to give a second reading to the Married Women’s Property Bill now, and not in six months. |
| 15th June 1870 | 181-181 | Y | Motion to put the question on the second reading of the Representation of the People Acts Amendment Bill. |
| 9th August 1878 | 40-40 | N | Amendment to a motion setting the day for the committee stage of the Blind and Deaf-Mute Children (Education) Bill. |
| 25th July 1887 | 75-75 | Y | Second reading of the Marriages Confirmation (Antwerp) Bill. |
| 11th May 1897 | 40-40 | Y | Second reading of the Vehicles (Lights) Bill. |
| 3rd April 1905 | 171-171 | N | Motion for an instruction to the committee dealing with the London County Council (Tramways) Bill. |
| 22nd July 1910 | 61-61 | Y | New clause to the Regency Bill. |
| 12th April 1938 | 144-144 | Y | Motion for leave to bring in the Jewish Citizenship Bill (relating to Palestine). |
| 22nd February 1939 | 89-89 | - | Motion to retain wording of motion calling for co-ordination of man-power and industrial policy in order to ensure employment to able-bodied unemployed workers. There was a miscount and the Noes were reported incorrectly as 90, hence the Speaker did not give a casting vote; the next day subsequent proceedings on the motion were declared null and void. |
| 1st May 1950 | 278-278 | N | Motion to reduce an estimate by £1,000 (Opposition attempt to criticize government’s policy on road haulage). |
| 1st March 1951 | 82-82 | Y | Motion that a clause stand part of the Reserve and Auxiliary Forces (Training) Bill. |
| 24th June 1952 | 173-173 | Y | Motion for leave to bring in the Licensing at Airports Bill. |
| 12th March 1958 | 153-153 | N | Motion to add a new clause to the Maintenance Orders Bill. |
| 2nd June 1965 | 281-281 | Y | Motion to retain wording of the Finance (No. 2) Bill. |
| 11th July 1974 | 291-291 | N | Amendment to the Trade Union and Labour Relations Bill. An irregularity in this division was discovered: one vote was struck off the Noes and the result reversed on 16th July 1974. |
| 11th July 1974 | 283-283 | N | Amendment to the Trade Union and Labour Relations Bill. An irregularity in this division was discovered: one vote was struck off the Noes and the result reversed on 16th July 1974. |
| 27th May 1976 | 303-303 | N | Amendment to procedure motion on the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Bill. |
| 10th November 1976 | 309-309 | Y | Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment to the Dock Work Regulation Bill. |
| 10th November 1976 | 310-310 | Y | Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment to the Dock Work Regulation Bill. |
| 10th November 1976 | 310-310 | Y | Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment to the Dock Work Regulation Bill. |
| 11th November 1976 | 309-309 | Y | Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment to the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Bill. |
| 17th July 1978 | 286-286 | Y | Motion to disagree with Lords Amendment to the Scotland Bill. |
| 30th January 1980 | 201-201 | Y | Motion for leave to bring in the Televising of Parliament Bill. |
| 22nd July 1993 | 317-317 | N | Amendment to motion approving government’s policy on the Social Chapter of the Treaty on European Union done at Maastricht. An error in this division was discovered: one vote was struck off the Ayes on 23rd July 1993. |