John Battle: It's time to take a fresh look at how Parliament and MPs work

In reality, 646 MPs are crushed in on the green benches on either side just over two sword lengths apart across the floor – when there is only seating for 427.

But what's not commonly known is that the layout of the Commons – both sides facing each other in rows of terraced seating – is rooted in an ancient monastic tradition. The seats are set out like monastic choir stalls.

And, because our Parliament was originally a monastery, the choir arrangement has remained – until other more modern 20th century parliamentary chambers were arranged in circles or semi-circles. Even Prime Minister's Questions is based on the "Antiphons – Response" speaking in turn across the Chamber.

Parliament with its ancient stone halls, statues, paintings, wood panelling and architecture, reeks of history running back to the 12th century (the age of the hammer beam roof in Westminster Hall) but it makes working there feel like living in a cross between a museum and a church – and at the same time having to operate in the 21st century world of emails, internet and twittering on the mobile.

Blending the ancient traditions with modern administrative practices has proved a real challenge for the British Parliament, though it still inspires some historical awe – any new MP gets a sense of their small place in history.

Not only is the physical layout limiting, for example, the long benches in the committee rooms are still equipped with the inkwells that I had in my school desk in the 1950s, but often the procedures have not kept up to date with modern ways of behaving and getting business done – from styles of address and indeed "dress" (men still have to wear a jacket and tie to take part in debate) to following the old Erskine May debating rule book, written two centuries ago. It spells out which abusive words you can't use – all dated.

Because each MP's constituency can be so different in terms of its needs and demands (inner city terrace streets versus miles of tracts of farmland), so are their workloads. In serving their constituents, MPs of all parties are out on their own doing it their way as best they see fit.

I often compared the job of an MP to an old Yorkshire shuttle on a loom doing two jobs, one at home in the constituency listening and one in Parliament speaking up for them and like a shuttle – the need to be sharp at both ends.

Changing Parliament takes years – not least because it is an ancient historical monument. My first office space was in the "cloister corridor" with 18 other "new" MPs in 1987. I had the end desk and spent two years asking for a shelf to be put up next to my desk after a cleaner put all my papers in the rubbish (they were stacked on the floor). They had to find a piece of matching wood. Though no longer MPs' offices, those shelves are still there and look like they've been there for centuries.

I recall a November pensioners' lobby queuing outside Parliament on the street in the rain and asking if they could be let in to queue in the huge empty Westminster Hall so that they didn't get pneumonia.

It took four years to get permission for them to come in from the wet and another two years to get Westminster Hall used as a lobbying area with extra toilet facilities just outside. Even then there was a rule preventing an MP speaking to the assembled pensioners through a microphone. "That would turn it into an illegal rally," I was told but I was free to shout myself hoarse. Today, Westminster Hall is a lobbying hall with proper toilets and a cafeteria – and microphone facilities – and includes regular exhibitions of the work of Parliament.

Some argue to shut the House of Commons down and move away to a modern building, and it is tempting to suggest Leeds as the centre of the country for a fresh start, leaving Parliament to the tourists.

When I first entered Parliament, a few secretaries were shared between all MPs. I campaigned to enable MPs to set up local parliamentary offices staffed to serve their constituents locally. Many MPs for London and the surrounding region employ their staff in their offices in the House of Commons.

Today, there are also many more staff working in the House itself not least as the result of the setting up of select committees to check and monitor Ministers and their departments. These usually meet three or four times a week – mostly unreported – but are an important part of the job and take up a substantial part of an MP's time in Parliament.

Nor can you be in three places at once – the Leeds constituency, the main House of Commons Chamber and a select committee session upstairs – though you are expected to be. Often I've answered the phone in London, to say I'm down in London in Parliament, during the week at 8pm to be asked, "Why?"

Perhaps a first step to updating Parliament is a much fuller public account of what MPs do at both ends so that there is a proper

assessment of the job. That will add real transparency and accountability. Moving to a modern building is not the answer but opening all the windows of the Houses of Parliament and letting the fresh air in would be a good start.

John Battle is a former Minister and the outgoing Labour MP for Leeds West.