This paper seeks to explain variations in the extent to which British Members of Parliament (MPs) use the Chamber to articulate issues relevant to minority constituents. Thus, the paper deals with questions of substantive representation by individual MPs. The analysis will be based on a content analysis of all parliamentary questions for written answer asked by Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) MPs between May 2005 and March 2013. These will be compared to the questions asked by a matching sample of non-minority legislators. Subsequently, theoretical predictions will be derived from two competing models: a strategic ’electoral-incentives model’ and a more sociological ‘socialisation model’. Predictions derived from these models will be tested in a series of multi-variate regression models using a dataset on PQs in the House of Commons.
