ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC)— Members of the Senate on Wednesday approved  an amendment to its Standings Orders, making it mandatory for documents for any proceedings from the Clerk’s office be sent electronically.

In 2019, members in the House of Representatives approved a similar resolution as part of measures under its efficiency strategy to transform the Houses of Parliament into a paperless legislative body.

“These amendments are meant to reduce the paper that we use, to reduce the cost involved in producing these tons of documents and so on; to conserve on the energy that goes into producing all of these documents,” President Chester Humphrey said while informing members about the amendment which was agreed to at a January 25, 2021 meeting of the Standing Orders Committee.

“As you know paper comes from trees and we know the consequential effects, it’s a measure meant to conserve nature and is in keeping with the rest of the world today,” he added.

The Standing Orders Committee includes Senators Norland Cox and Tessa St Cyr and is chaired by President Humphrey.

He informed members that the amendment to the standing orders will be a clear directive to the Clerk of Parliament which will say that “the principal way of distributing documents for any proceedings in the Senate from the Clerk’s office is done electronically.”

“This will be the principal way in this age, in the digital age in which we live, the age in which there must be strident attempts to preserve nature,” he said.

 Cox, who presented the amendment in the form of a resolution, said that amendment provides for the Senate to be able to use electronic means for the transmission of documents and also for electronic sittings.