In some of the Commonwealth realms, a division bell is a bell rung in or around parliament to signal a division (a vote) to members of the relevant chamber so that they may participate. A division bell may also be used to signal the start or end of parliamentary proceedings, and often produces different sounds or coloured lights to identify the chamber affected.
In the United Kingdom
thumb|Houses of Parliament Division bell
In the United Kingdom, division bells are used in the immediate neighbourhood of the Palace of Westminster (housing Parliament) to signal that a division is occurring and that members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords have eight minutes to get to their chosen division lobby to vote for or against the resolution. The call for a division is also displayed on annunciator screens throughout the Palace of Westminster. The division bells are also sounded at the start of a daily sitting, at the end of the two-minute prayers that start each day, and when the house rises. Division bells have been used in this way in the United Kingdom since 1858.
As of 2014, there were 384 division bells within the Parliamentary estate, and 172 outside it. Queensland and the Territories, which have unicameral parliaments, do not require the red light which indicates the upper house. In the Parliament of New South Wales, the division bell rings differently for divisions in the Assembly and the council.
The bells are typically rung at the beginning of a sitting, because a member has challenged a vote (called a division), or because there are not enough members in the chamber to constitute quorum. On one occasion, a young Paul Keating was furiously censured by his party's whip for missing a division. Keating made the excuse that he could not hear the division bell in his office, when in fact he had simply turned it down.
In Canada
thumb|An electronic division bell rings in the [[Legislative Assembly of Ontario|Ontario Legislative Assembly]]
The electronic bell of the House of Commons sounds to call members of the House for a sitting, a vote, or to announce the lack of a quorum. In the case of a vote, it is referred to as the division bell.