What a quorum is
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A quorum is the minimum number of members who must be present in a chamber for it to conduct official business, such as debating a bill or holding a formal vote on a matter. The requirement exists to ensure that decisions carry a baseline level of genuine participation rather than being made by only a small handful of members present at the time.
Quorum rules vary between parliaments, with some requiring only a small fraction of total membership and others setting a considerably higher bar for attendance, and most systems include a formal process for a member to call attention to a lack of quorum during an active sitting of the chamber.
When a quorum cannot be reached, proceedings are typically suspended until enough members return to the chamber, which can occasionally become a tactical point of friction between government and opposition during a particularly contentious debate over a genuinely difficult and divisive bill, even though it rarely makes headlines.