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The Bureaus of the Cortes Generales are the governing bodies of each House of the Cortes Generales, the legislative branch of Spain. The Bureaus are made up of the President or Speaker of the House, the Vice Presidents or Deputy Speakers and the Secretaries. [1] [2] Each Bureau is regulated by the standing orders of its house.
There are traditionally two models for the presidency of a parliamentary assembly, the collective presidency composed of a bureau and individual speakership. [3]
The collegiate or collective presidency is composed of members that reflect the political make-up of the chamber. Its role is to organise the House's work and establish the order of business. The president or speaker chairs the bureau (in addition to their other roles). This model has been called the "continental European model" [4] since it has been adopted by most European parliaments including Spain. [5]
The second model is an individual speakership in which the holder of the office is the sole guarantor of the chamber’s independence and privileges, of which the archetype is the Speaker at Westminster. In this model, supervising the House's work is performed by others (for example, in many British Commonwealth countries, the Leader of the House). The United States House of Representatives represents a variation of this model with the Speaker being also the leader of the majority in the chamber, in contrast to the Speaker at Westminster who rejects all political affiliation.
The Bureaus broad functions are to supervise administrative matters such as the timetable for public sittings of the House and its committees, and be responsible for the organisation of the parliaments work, such as determining the admissibility of proposals, bills & documents and deciding on the house's order of business. [6]
Other bodies provide advice to the Bureau including the Board of Spokespersons (Spanish : Junta de Portavoces) made up of representatives of all parties who must be consulted on the chamber's order of business [7] and the Clerk (chief legal counsel, Spanish : Letrado Mayor del Congreso de Diputados) who is also by convention the Secretary General (Spanish : Secretario General). The Clerk, (who is a public servant appointed by the Bureau on the nomination of the Speaker) advises the Bureau on parliamentary law, practice and procedure and charged with the actual administration of the parliament.
More concretely, the functions of the Bureau of the Congress of Deputies are: [8]
The functions of the Bureau of the Senate are: [10]
In May 2019 following the investiture of four elected members of Congress who were in preventive detention and on trial over their role in Catalonia’s failed independence bid in 2017, and following a decision of the Supreme Court that it was within the powers of the Bureau of Congress to do so, the Bureau decided to suspend the four deputies from all their duties and rights as members of Congress. [11]
After national elections, the first sitting of each house is called the constituent or constitutive sitting, the function of which is to elect the Bureau. The first step is to establish a temporary body composed by the oldest member of each House which acts as Acting Speaker and two secretaries which are the youngest members of the House. This body oversees the electoral process of the Bureaus. [12] [13]
The Bureaus' members are elected among and by the members of the houses by means of secret ballot. The Speaker is elected by absolute majority or, failing that, through plurality in a second round between the two candidates that received most votes in the first round. The other members are elected using the single non-transferable vote method which ensures plurality, i.e. representation of the largest parties in the Congress. [14]
After the Bureau is elected, the Speaker declares the House constituted, and adjourns the sitting and notifies the King, the other House and the Government. [15]
The Speakers or Presidents of the respective House and are the supreme authority within its Chamber and they chair the Chamber's Bureau.
The Deputy Speakers or Vice Presidents are hierarchically numbered (1st deputy, 2nd deputy) and they deputise, in order of precedence, for the Speaker. This happens in cases of vacancy or absence.
The Secretaries supervise and authorize, with the approval of the Speaker, the Minutes of the parliamentary sessions, of the Bureau and of the Board of Spokespersons, as well as the certifications that have to be issued, they assist the Speaker in the sessions to ensure order in the debates and the correction in the votes; they collaborate in the normal development of the works of their House according to the provisions of the Speaker; and they also exercise any other functions entrusted to them by the Speaker or the Bureau.
The Spanish Senate is the upper house of the Cortes Generales and its standing orders were passed on 3 May 1994 and they have been modified at least twenty times. [16] The Bureau acts under the authority and direction of the Speaker. The Senate Bureau must be elected in the constitutive session and it is composed by the President of the Senate, two Vice Presidents and two Secretaries. [2]
| Office | Name | Party |
| Speaker | Pedro Rollán |  People's Party |
| First Deputy Speaker | Javier Maroto | People's Party |
| Second Deputy Speaker | Guillermo Fernández Vara |  Socialist Party |
| First Secretary | Eva Ortiz Vilella | People's Party |
| Second Secretary | María del Mar Blanco | People's Party |
| Third Secretary | Mª Ángeles Luna Morales | Socialist Party |
| Fourth Secretary | Francisco Manuel Fajardo | Socialist Party |
The Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes Generales and its standing orders were passed on 24 February 1982 and they have been modified at least twelve times.
The Bureau of the Congress is directed and coordinated by the Speaker of the Congress of Deputies. Because of the large size of the Congress compared to the Senate, the Bureau of the Congress is composed by the Speaker of the Congress, acting as chairperson, four Deputy Speakers and four Secretaries. [1]
| Office | Name | Party |
| Speaker | Francina Armengol | Socialist Party |
| First Deputy Speaker | Alfonso Rodríguez | Socialist Party |
| Second Deputy Speaker | José Antonio Bermúdez de Castro | People's Party |
| Third Deputy Speaker | Esther Gil de Reboleño Lastortres |  Sumar |
| Fourth Deputy Speaker | Marta González Vázquez | People's Party |
| First Secretary | Gerardo Pisarello | Sumar |
| Second Secretary | Isaura Leal Fernández | Socialist Party |
| Third Secretary | Guillermo Mariscal Anaya | People's Party |
| Fourth Secretary | Carmen Navarro Lacoba | People's Party |
Each House of the Cortes Generales has a number of standing committees (Spanish : commissiones) and each is governed by its own bureau. [18] As a general rule, both Senate Committees and Congressional Committees and are composed of a Chairperson, two Deputy Chairpersons and two Secretaries all of them elected from the committee members.
There are some exceptions where the chairperson of some committees is not elected. This is the case for the Rules Committee of each House which is chaired by the Speaker of the House and the General Committee for the Autonomous Communities in the Senate, which is chaired by the Senate Speaker.
A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers, which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be cancelled in exceptional circumstances. Question time originated in the Westminster system of the United Kingdom, and occurs in other countries, mostly Commonwealth countries, who use the system.
President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies.
The Congress of the Philippines is the legislature of the national government of the Philippines. It is bicameral, composed of an upper body, the Senate, and a lower body, the House of Representatives, although colloquially, the term "Congress" commonly refers to just the latter. The Senate meets at the GSIS Building in Pasay, while the House of Representatives meets at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City, which also hosts joint sessions.
The president of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the lower house is the speaker of the House of Representatives. The office of the presidency of the senate was established in 1901 by section 17 of the Constitution of Australia. The primary responsibilities of the office is to oversee senate debates, determine which senators may speak, maintain order and the parliamentary code of conduct during sessions and uphold all rules and orders of the senate. The current president is Sue Lines, who was elected on 26 July 2022.
The Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament in Madrid.
The Senate is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid.
The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England.
In New Zealand, the speaker of the House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer and highest authority of the New Zealand House of Representatives. The individual who holds the position is elected by members of the House from among their number in the first session after each general election. They hold one of the highest-ranking offices in New Zealand. The current Speaker is Gerry Brownlee, who was elected on 5 December 2023.
The Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the supreme legislative body of Sri Lanka. It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the island. It is modeled after the British Parliament.
The Parliament of the Hellenes, commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament, is the unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme democratic institution that represents the citizens through an elected body of Members of Parliament (MPs).
The Chamber of Representatives is one of the two chambers in the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Senate. It is considered to be the "lower house" of the Federal Parliament.
The National Assembly is Mauritius's unicameral legislature, which was called the Legislative Assembly from 1968 until 1992, when the country became a republic. Prior to 1968 and under British rule it was known as the Legislative Council. The Constitution of Mauritius provides for the parliament of Mauritius to consist of the President and the National Assembly. The parliament of Mauritius is modelled after the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, where members of parliament are voted in at regular general elections, on the basis of a first past the post system. The working language of the National Assembly is English.
The speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, more popularly known as the House speaker, is the presiding officer and the highest-ranking official of the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, as well as the fourth-highest official of the government of the Philippines.
The Speaker of the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the presiding officer of the chamber. The current Speaker of the Parliament is Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in office since 20 August 2020. The Speaker fulfills a number of important functions in relation to the operation of the House, which is based upon the British Westminster parliamentary system.
The president of the Congress of Deputies is the speaker of the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Cortes Generales. The president is elected among the members of the Congress and is, after the king and the prime minister, the highest authority in the Kingdom of Spain.
The president of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Spanish Senate, the upper house of Spain's Cortes Generales. It is the fourth authority of the country after the Monarch, the Prime Minister and the President of the Congress of Deputies. The president is elected among and by the incumbent senators. When the president is unable to exercise power, vice presidents of the Senate exercise the powers of the Senate president.
The Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil is the body responsible for the direction of the legislative and administrative services of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil.
The Board of Spokespersons is a parliamentary body of the Cortes Generales mainly entrusted with the task of ordering the agenda of the Parliament. As a bicameral legislature, the Cortes Generales are formed by two houses, the Senate and the Congress of Deputies. The Board meets every week.
Parliamentary groups in Spain are the union of members of parliament who may or may not belong to the same political party, but with the same or similar political ideology. The figure of the parliamentary group is common to the Cortes Generales, the national parliament of Spain, and the regional legislatures.
The Permanent Deputation, in Spain, is a parliamentary body consisting of a reduced number of members of parliament which assume the legislative powers of the Parliament when it is not in session. The members of this body are chosen proportionally to the number of deputies that each political group has. The chair of a permanent deputation is normally the speaker of the Parliament.
