WINDSOR MP Adam Afriyie talks about getting back to a 'normal' parliament.

We’ve been operating a ‘hybrid’ parliament for a few weeks now and, on the whole, voting and written questions have been running smoothly.

Oral questions, urgent questions and statements on the floor of the house have been a lot more challenging. This goes beyond technical glitches however, even if I have been the unfortunate victim of said difficulties alongside many more of my colleagues, including the Chancellor.

When MPs are physically present in the chamber on a committee, there is a better sense of being able to hold the Government to account and quiz Ministers and others on the work they are doing.

I should re-iterate that the primary function of an MP is to represent their constituency and to hold the government to account. To be frank, despite the best will in the will in the world, this is very difficult to achieve at a distance.

The benefits of being physically present in parliament are that you can look ministers in the whites of their eyes, you can directly interact with them literally on a daily basisin the voting lobbies and the many corridors of Westminster. This enables all MPs to have private conversations to establish what might and might not be possible based upon constituents concerns and wishes.

Above all, the Government itself can get a strong sense of what matters to MPs and their constituencies. This allows for better policy to be forged that stand a greater chance of success and are in tune with what people want to see.

Government ministers often have a very full plate of issues, policies, and legislation to address, and as a result can easily, and quite understandable, loose the perspective of backbench MPs who are much more in step with their constituencies. A fully functional Parliament will therefore bring the major benefit of allowing ministers to test ideas with MPs, of all political persuasions, who will often be better equipped to evaluate how policies will be received by the British public, or how policies will operate and be delivered.

The UK parliament is known as the mother of all parliaments and I am very keen that we get back to full operations as soon as possible, albeit with some allowances, such as continued remote voting for some MPs, if needed until this pandemic has passed.I believe we must set an example by returning as soon as possible, respecting social distancing and advice as best we can.