Pub quiz

[juliely]

Help needed please.
If an M P dies in the House of Commons, his place of death on the death certificate is recorded as where?
I cannot find this anywhere.

[Alibobs]

Would it be The Palace of Westminster?

[sddsddean]

No, its the hospital (as a post mortem would be needed for a sudden death) the body of the MP is taken to. You are not 'allowed' to die in the Houses of Parliament.

[juliely]

So the answer is whichever hospital the ambulance goes to?

[BigMac]

I think the answer is "dead on arrival at hospital". As sddsddean says, you are not 'allowed' to die in the House of Commons (or Lords) because they comprise what is still a Royal Palace - the Palace of Westminster. [This has caused problems for staff at the Palace in the past (catering, cleaning, research, MPs' assistants) because normal health and safety legislation, for example, did not apply to a royal palace...] The most obvious example of this ridiculous state of affairs was the death of Tory MP Airey Neave, blown up and killed by a car-bomb when leaving the House of Commons car-park...

The House of Commons Library (switchboard: 020 7219 3000) used to do a whole series of factsheets and I think that this was included in one of them. The factsheets should all be available online - the address is: www.parliament.uk/commons/lib

[sddsddean]

Sorry for not pointing that out. BigMac is quite right, you would be DOA at the hospital.