Karen spends most of her week in Parliament representing Staffordshire Moorlands. When she is back in the constituency she's often asked about what it's like speaking in the House. In this article for the Leek Post and Times and Your Leek Paper she explains how she goes about asking questions on behalf of constituents. "If you watch coverage of the House of Commons you may have seen me asking questions. Lots of people have asked me about speaking in the chamber and particularly how I got to ask the PM about further education recently.
"There are two ways ask a question: either get your name on the daily order paper or catch the Speaker's eye at the right time. To catch his eye you'll see MPs bobbing up and down between questions and answers hoping to be called - if you succeed it's known in the House as a "free hit". If you have a particular constituency issue to raise, you can lobby the Speaker to call you in advance - there's no guarantee but it does increase your chances of being called if it's serious.
"Alternatively, to get on the order paper, MPs apply to the Table Office in the House of Commons and the names of everyone who wants to ask a question are put in a hat. If your name is drawn out early enough you'll be on the order paper - so ministers will know what you're going to say - and automatically called to ask a question.
"There is at least one hour of questions first thing every day in the Commons where a Secretary of State and ministerial team are quizzed on the work of their department. The Speaker calls members alternatively from the government and opposition benches. If the names drawn out by the Table Office result in two or more members from the same side asking together, the Speaker will by convention give a "free hit" to the other side.
"The Commons can be a hostile place to speak, but question times have a simple system that is efficient but also allows real scrutiny in holding the government to account."