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Early Day Motions

Early day motion (EDM) is a colloquial term for a notice of motion given by a Member for which no date has been fixed for debate. EDMs exist to allow Members to put on record their opinion on a subject and canvass support for it from fellow Members. In effect, the primary function of an EDM is to form a kind of petition that MPs can sign.

The early day motion (EDM) is a much-used device to publicise the views of individual Members of Parliament, and to demonstrate the extent of support among MPs for a particular cause or point of view. In parliamentary terms, the EDM virtually never has any direct consequence. Public interest in them, which is well known to Members, perhaps in itself, demonstrates their purpose. Even if an EDM does not attract wide national press coverage it may well receive attention locally or regionally.

If you would like to find out more about how Early Day Motions work please follow the link below for more information from the Parliament website.

www.parliament.uk/about_commons/early_day_motions

Fabian has signed a number of Early Day Motions recently.
EDM 2147
COMPETITION COMMISSION INVESTIGATION INTO ENERGY COMPANIES
26.10.2009
Grogan, John

That this House calls for a Competition Commission investigation into the relationship between wholesale prices and retail prices offered to consumers by the Big Six energy suppliers, namely British Gas, E.ON, EDF Energy, Npower, Scottish and Southern and ScottishPower.

EDM 2196
FEED-IN TARIFFS AND RENEWABLE ENERGY
29.10.2009
Simpson, Alan

That this House underlines the importance of demonstrating a strong commitment to policies to tackle climate change in the run-up to negotiations in Copenhagen; reiterates its welcome for the inclusion of feed-in tariff legislation in the Energy Act 2008; notes the strong support for this legislation from a wide variety of businesses, environmental, consumer and fuel poverty groups, trade unions, farmers and social landlords; further notes the huge technical potential for sub-5 megawatt decentralised renewable technologies to deliver up to one third of the UK's electricity; believes that decentralised energy could make a considerable contribution to cutting the UK's carbon emissions, tackling fuel poverty, increasing energy security and generating green jobs; is concerned that tariffs proposed for the Government's Clean Energy Cashback scheme will mean decentralised renewable electricity is anticipated to contribute just two per cent. of the UK's electricity by 2020; considers this to be a wholly inadequate level of ambition; supports calls for a suitably ambitious tariff which delivers a significantly higher return on investment; and therefore calls on the Government to revise the proposed tariffs substantially, to increase the level of ambition of the scheme and offer communities, households and businesses a significant role in driving UK renewable energy deployment.

If you would like to see an updated list of the EDMs Fabian has signed, please click here.

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi

Is there an EDM which you feel strongly about and would like Fabian to support? If so please e-mail Fabain with the details.