Floor Control and Speaking Flow

This document covers how the system implements Part XVI (S.O. 78–83) and Part XVII (S.O. 97) of the National Assembly Standing Orders (7th Edition) — the rules of debate, floor requests, the speaking queue, microphone control, and time limits.

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1. Key Standing Orders Implemented

Standing Order	Rule	System enforcement
S.O. 78	Every Member wishing to speak shall address a request to the Speaker	POST /sittings/:id/speaking-requests
S.O. 79	When two or more Members rise at the same time, the Speaker calls upon them	Queue ordering + Point of Order priority
S.O. 81	No Member shall speak after the question has been put	Blocked when a VoteSession is OPEN
S.O. 82	No Member shall speak more than once to a question	Prior-speech check per agenda item
S.O. 82A	Member who has spoken may speak to an amendment	Point of Information requests allowed
S.O. 83	Any Member may raise a Point of Order at any time	POINT_OF_ORDER type floats to queue top
S.O. 97	Time limits on debate — auto-assigned by role	timeLimit set on grant from role lookup

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2. Speaking Request Lifecycle

A speaking request moves through the following states:

Member submits request
        │
        ▼
    PENDING  ◄──── queued, visible to Speaker
        │
   Speaker acts
   ┌────┴────┐
   ▼         ▼
GRANTED    DENIED ──► terminal
   │
   ▼
IN_PROGRESS  ──► mic ON, timer running
   │
   ├──► PAUSED (mic OFF, timer frozen) ──► IN_PROGRESS (resumed)
   │
   ▼
COMPLETED ──► terminal

PENDING / GRANTED / IN_PROGRESS ──► CANCELLED (Member withdraws)

Status Meanings

Status	Meaning
PENDING	Request submitted, waiting for Speaker to act
GRANTED	Speaker recognised the Member — mic not yet ON
IN_PROGRESS	Mic is ON, Member is speaking, timer running
DENIED	Speaker declined the request
COMPLETED	Speech ended (mic OFF, speakingEnd recorded)
CANCELLED	Member withdrew request

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3. Request Types (S.O. 78, 83)

requestType constant	Standing Order	Description
REGULAR	S.O. 78	Standard floor request to speak in debate
POINT_OF_ORDER	S.O. 83	Point of order — floats to top of queue
POINT_OF_INFORMATION	S.O. 82A	Point of information — exempt from S.O. 82 repeat-speaker rule
URGENT_MATTER_MOVER	S.O. 33	Mover of urgent adjournment motion
URGENT_MATTER_OTHER	S.O. 33	Other speaker on urgent adjournment matter

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4. Queue Ordering (S.O. 79)

When the Speaker views the speaking queue (GET /sittings/:id/speaking-requests), requests are sorted as follows:

1. Points of Order (POINT_OF_ORDER) always sort to position 0 — ahead of all other requests
2. Within each priority group, requests are ordered by queuePosition (insertion order) then by requestedAt timestamp

This directly implements S.O. 79: "If two or more Members request to speak at the same time, the Speaker shall call upon them in such order as the Speaker deems fit", with the system providing the Speaker a pre-ordered queue.

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5. Standing Order Enforcement on Submission

The POST /sittings/:id/speaking-requests endpoint enforces three SO rules before creating the request:

S.O. 78 — Active Sitting Required

Throws BadRequestException if sitting.status ≠ IN_PROGRESS
"SO 78 – Speaking requests can only be made during an active sitting"

S.O. 81 — No Speaking After Question Put

Throws BadRequestException if VoteSession WHERE agendaItemId = x AND status = OPEN exists
"SO 81 – No Member may speak after the question has been put"

S.O. 82 — No Repeat Speaking

Throws BadRequestException if a prior GRANTED / IN_PROGRESS / COMPLETED request exists
for the same (userId, agendaItemId) combination.
Does NOT apply to POINT_OF_ORDER or POINT_OF_INFORMATION request types.
"SO 82 – A Member may not speak more than once to the same question"

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6. Granting and Time Limits (S.O. 79, 97)

POST /sittings/speaking-requests/:requestId/grant — Speaker recognises the Member.

On grant, the service automatically resolves the timeLimit from the member's role:

Member role	S.O. 97	Time limit	System constant
leader_majority / leader_minority	S.O. 97	60 minutes	SPEAKING_TIME_LIMITS.LEADER_MAJORITY_MINORITY = 3600 s
member (regular debate)	S.O. 97	20 minutes	SPEAKING_TIME_LIMITS.REGULAR_DEBATE = 1200 s
URGENT_MATTER_MOVER type	S.O. 33	10 minutes	SPEAKING_TIME_LIMITS.URGENCY_MOVER = 600 s
URGENT_MATTER_OTHER type	S.O. 33	5 minutes	SPEAKING_TIME_LIMITS.URGENCY_OTHER = 300 s
Statement (S.O. 43)	S.O. 43	3 minutes	SPEAKING_TIME_LIMITS.STATEMENT = 180 s
Petition presenter (S.O. 225)	S.O. 225	5 minutes	SPEAKING_TIME_LIMITS.PETITION = 300 s
POINT_OF_ORDER type	S.O. 83	No limit	SPEAKING_TIME_LIMITS.POINT_OF_ORDER = 0 (Speaker decides)

The resolved timeLimit (in seconds) and remainingTime are set on the SpeakingRequest record and sent to all clients via the micOn WebSocket event.

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7. Microphone Control (S.O. 79)

After a request is GRANTED, the Speaker activates the microphone:

Mic ON — POST /sittings/speaking-requests/:requestId/mic-on

• Sets micStatus = ON, status = IN_PROGRESS
• Records speakingStart timestamp
• Emits micOn WebSocket event to the sitting room with timeLimit, remainingTime, speakingStart, and serverNow

Point of Order interruption: If a POINT_OF_ORDER mic-on request is made while another Member has mic ON, the system automatically:

1. Pauses the current speaker — sets micStatus = OFF, records remainingTime, sets pausedAt
2. Emits micOff with event: PAUSED_FOR_POINT_OF_ORDER to the sitting room
3. Turns on the Point of Order member's mic

Mic OFF — POST /sittings/speaking-requests/:requestId/mic-off

• Sets micStatus = OFF, status = COMPLETED
• Records speakingEnd
• Emits micOff WebSocket event

Pause — POST /sittings/speaking-requests/:requestId/pause

• Sets micStatus = OFF while keeping status = IN_PROGRESS
• Calculates and stores remainingTime
• Records pausedAt
• Emits floorUpdate with event: PAUSED

Resume — POST /sittings/speaking-requests/:requestId/resume

• Restores micStatus = ON
• Clears pausedAt, restores speakingStart
• Emits micOn with restored remainingTime

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8. WebSocket — Floor Gateway

All floor events are emitted on the floor namespace. Clients must join a sitting room first:

// Subscribe
emit('joinSitting', '<sittingId>')
// → { status: 'joined', room: 'sitting_<id>', serverNow: '...' }

// Unsubscribe
emit('leaveSitting', '<sittingId>')

Events Received in the Sitting Room

Event	When emitted	Payload fields
floorUpdate	Queue changes (request created/granted/denied/cancelled/paused)	event, sittingId, request, serverNow
micOn	Member's mic activated	sittingId, requestId, userId, timeLimit, remainingTime, speakingStart, serverNow, member
micOff	Member's mic deactivated or paused	sittingId, requestId, userId, serverNow, event, remainingTime, member
agendaUpdate	Agenda item state changed	sittingId, agenda item data
voteUpdate	Vote session created/closed	sittingId, sessionId, event, serverNow

micOff event values:

event value	Meaning
COMPLETED	Speech concluded normally
PAUSED_FOR_POINT_OF_ORDER	Paused because a Point of Order was raised
PAUSED	Speaker paused speech manually

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9. API Reference — Floor Control

Method	Endpoint	Permission	Who
POST	/api/v1/sittings/:id/speaking-requests	floor:request_speak	Member submits request
GET	/api/v1/sittings/:id/speaking-requests	floor:list_requests	View ordered speaking queue
GET	/api/v1/sittings/:id/current-speaker	sitting:read	Get current IN_PROGRESS speaker
GET	/api/v1/sittings/:id/active-vote	vote:read	Get active vote (SO 81 check)
POST	/api/v1/sittings/speaking-requests/:id/grant	floor:grant_speak	Speaker grants request
POST	/api/v1/sittings/speaking-requests/:id/deny	floor:deny_speak	Speaker denies request
POST	/api/v1/sittings/speaking-requests/:id/mic-on	floor:mic_control	Activate microphone
POST	/api/v1/sittings/speaking-requests/:id/mic-off	floor:mic_control	Mute microphone
POST	/api/v1/sittings/speaking-requests/:id/pause	floor:mic_control	Pause speech, freeze timer
POST	/api/v1/sittings/speaking-requests/:id/resume	floor:mic_control	Resume paused speech
POST	/api/v1/sittings/speaking-requests/:id/cancel	floor:request_speak	Member cancels own request

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10. Full Floor Flow Example

1. Clerk creates sitting (SCHEDULED)
2. Speaker starts sitting → status = IN_PROGRESS

3. Member A POSTs /speaking-requests  { requestType: "REGULAR" }
   → queuePosition = 1, status = PENDING
   → WebSocket: floorUpdate { event: "REQUEST_CREATED" }

4. Member B POSTs /speaking-requests  { requestType: "REGULAR" }
   → queuePosition = 2, status = PENDING

5. Member C POSTs /speaking-requests  { requestType: "POINT_OF_ORDER" }
   → queuePosition = 3, but sorts to position 0 in queue response

6. Speaker GETs /speaking-requests
   → [ Member C (POO, pos 0), Member A (pos 1), Member B (pos 2) ]

7. Speaker POSTs /speaking-requests/:A_id/grant
   → status = GRANTED, timeLimit = 1200 (20 min, regular member)
   → WebSocket: floorUpdate { event: "REQUEST_GRANTED" }

8. Speaker POSTs /speaking-requests/:A_id/mic-on
   → status = IN_PROGRESS, micStatus = ON, speakingStart = now
   → WebSocket: micOn { timeLimit: 1200, remainingTime: 1200, speakingStart, serverNow }

9. Member C (POO) POSTs /speaking-requests/:C_id/mic-on
   → Member A auto-paused: micOff { event: "PAUSED_FOR_POINT_OF_ORDER" }
   → Member C: micOn (no timer)

10. Speaker POSTs /speaking-requests/:C_id/mic-off
    → WebSocket: micOff { event: "COMPLETED" }

11. Speaker POSTs /speaking-requests/:A_id/resume
    → Member A resumes with remaining time preserved
    → WebSocket: micOn { remainingTime: <preserved> }

12. Speaker POSTs /speaking-requests/:A_id/mic-off
    → status = COMPLETED, speakingEnd recorded
    → WebSocket: micOff { event: "COMPLETED" }

13. Speaker POSTs /sittings/:id/complete → COMPLETED