Question of privilege
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A Question of privilege in parliamentary procedure is a privileged motion relating to the rights and privileges of the assembly as a whole, or its members. Such questions may interrupt pending business, and may even interrupt speeches if particularly urgent. While Robert's says that a question of privilege cannot interrupt a vote or the verification of a vote, matters affecting the vote, such as a shortage of ballots, are generally admitted without much consideration of theory.
When a question of privilege affects a single member, it is often called a point of personal privilege. Such a point may include a need for assistance, to be excused for illness or personal emergency, or the need to immediately answer a charge of misconduct made by another member. The member rises immediately and without waiting to be recognized states, "Mr. Chairman, I rise on a question of personal privilege," or similar words. If the member has interrupted a speaker, the chair must determine if the matter is of such urgency as demands immediate attention; otherwise, the member will have the floor immediately after the current speaker is finished. The use for personal insults follows from the requirement of comity in an assembly: members cannot insult one another unless they are prepared to prefer and prove charges, and a member so insulted must be able to demand proof or an apology quickly, lest his standing in the assembly be imperiled.
Questions of privilege affecting the assembly may include matters of comfort, amplification, or safety. Technically, notifying the assembly of a fire alarm or bomb threat could be viewed as a question of privilege. Such questions have precedence over points of personal privilege should they conflict. Otherwise, a question of privilege can only be interrupted by higher-precedence privileged questions: motions to take a recess, to adjourn or to fix the time to which to adjourn.
[edit] References
- Robert's Rules of Order [available on line here]
