Speaker rules that MPs must wear jacket in parliament, ties are optional

Speaker Anglu Farrugia has ruled that male MPs attending parliamentary sittings must wear a jacket but need not wear a tie, while women were expected to maintain the “same level of decorum”.

Farrugia gave his ruling after controversy surrounding Partit Demokratiku MP Godfrey Farrugia’s choice of attire in parliament this week. Farrugia attended Tuesday’s parliamentary sitting wearing a polo shirt, with some observers insisting that his choice of clothing was not worthy of parliament.

In his ruling, the Speaker said he had referred to a survey on parliamentary dress codes undertaken by the European Centre for Parliamentary Research, as well as parliament’s standing orders for guidance.

He said that the survey had found that while in many cases there were no specific rules MPs generally dressed in a way that was worthy of parliament.

Standing order 179, he said, also made reference to MPs being required to dress in an appropriate manner but did not specify a dress code. 

Farrugia went on to say that in the absence of a specific rule, the House was obliged to refer to the UK House of Commons’ regulations.

He said that recently John Bercrow, the speaker of the House of Commons, had ruled that parliamentarians were not obliged to wear a suit but could attend sittings wearing “business attire” consisting of a jacket without a tie.

On the basis of this, Farrugia said he was informing the clerk of House to deliver his ruling to all MPs.