It’s Parliament Week – see https://www.ukparliamentweek.org/en/ – and lots of activities will be taking place across the country. Parliament Week (UKPW) is an annual event, spreading the word about what Parliament is, what it does and how you can get involved and featured over 10,000 activities last year.
You may have heard from people running events with invitations for local MPs to attend.
Dissolution is the official term for the end of a Parliament before a general election. When Parliament is dissolved every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant. MPs immediately revert to being members of the general public and those who wish to become MPs again must stand for election as candidates.
The House has now published its revised dissolution guidance, which aims to help Members and Members’ staff understand the rules in place and the support available to them before, during and after the next election, including what to expect during the dissolution period.
You can find the guidance on the new parliamentary intranet, ParliNet, and we have published our own page on w4mp to track the guidance.
Please note that the guides etc may be updated before the election and so you should refer to ParliNet and not any stored web pages or PDFs for the latest guidance.
Are you a parliamentary worker who uses evidence-based information as part of your role? A new research project supported by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations is asking what sources of information you use and why. The aim of the work is to understand how evidence could be communicated to policy makers more effectively. Take part in a short online survey and you could win £100 for yourself or for charity. For more information and to take part, go to this link:
https://oxford.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/communicating-evidence-to-policy-makers-what-works-best
The request to post came from Dr Caroline Wood at Oxford University, who has been awarded a grant from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) to investigate which sources of information policy makers most rely on to access current evidence on topical issues.
The aim is that the findings of this will inform a publicly-accessible ‘best practice guide’ for all those whose role involves communicating evidence to policy makers (including thinktanks, research institutions, universities, and NGOs). By understanding which information sources are favoured by policy makers, this will allow organisations with limited resources for policy engagement to focus on the channels that are most likely to be effective.
The core activity of the project is a short online survey which asks policy makers (including policy advisers and research assistants for MPs) which sources of evidence they use and why.
They are looking for as many participants as possible in order to generate enough data to glean some valuable insights and we are happy to bring it to the attention of our readers
We have just published two short guides about ways to make your documents look better, on screen and in print. They are both available here or from the Guides menu.
The Balfour Project intends to appoint fifteen Balfour Project Peace Advocacy Fellows for the academic year 2022-23. If you are a postgraduate or final year undergraduate student with an interest in Israel-Palestine, you are welcome to apply.
The selected fellows will be paid a bursary of £700 payable in two tranches at the midpoint and end of the academic year.
As a fellow, you will be given the opportunity to make a tangible contribution to the work of the Balfour Project by campaigning for peace within your academic institution and more generally,
Applications for the 2022/23 Fellowship are now open.
To find out more about the content and expectations for the 2022/23 Fellowship programme, please read our Call for Fellows.
If you would like to make an application, please click here to fill out and submit an application form.
Applications for the 2022/23 Fellowship close on Friday 16th September 5 pm UK time. After which, the Fellowship coordination team will review applications and be in touch.
Please contact fellowship@balfourproject.org should you have any questions.
Good Things Foundation and Nominet have announced a new research scheme to help end data poverty and reduce the cost of living. The three research fellowships – part of the pioneering Data Poverty Lab – will each provide £12,000 funding to enable people to explore interventions with the aim of designing effective solutions to tackle data poverty.
With recent Ofcom figures showing 84% of benefits recipients unaware that they already qualify for cheaper broadband deals, the scheme is designed to both amplify existing interventions and highlight new ideas.
The Fellowships will explore three key themes which emerged from the Data Poverty Lab’s initial research:
Individuals interested in applying for a Data Poverty Lab Fellowship should visit www.goodthingsfoundation.org/data-poverty-lab/fellowship/ or contact our Policy and Research Officer, Tom McGrath, by emailing tom.mcgrath@goodthingsfoundation.org. Applications are open from 23 February to 20 March 2022.
READ HERE for the full call for fellows.
https://balfourproject.org/bp/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Call-for-Balfour-Project.pdf
The Balfour Project intends to appoint up to twenty Peace Advocacy Fellows for the academic
year 2021-22. If you are a post-graduate or final year undergraduate student with an interest in the the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, you are welcome to apply.
The selected fellows will be paid a bursary of £700 payable in two tranches at the midpoint and end of theacademic year.
Theyh are open for applications between 1 September and 5pm of Friday, 29 October. Interviews will take place in the second half of October, and the fellows will be appointed at the end of the month.
The total deaths as a result of Coronavirus now stands at 45,961, an increase of 83 as of today.
According to the ONS the UK has recorded the highest level of excess deaths amongst European countries with 6.9% more excess deaths in the country as a whole and 7.5% more in England. Spain and Belgium are second and third with 6.7% and 3.9% respectively.
The required isolation period for people that have tested positive for Coronavirus will increase from 7 to 10 days. This announcement comes after the Prime Minister warned yesterday of signs of a second wave of Coronavirus across Europe.
Britain has also re-imposed a 14-day quarantine period on people arriving from Spain. In an Interview with Sky news Matt Hancock said that “I am worried about a second wave. I think you can see a second wave starting to roll across Europe, and we’ve got to do everything we can to prevent it from reaching these shores, and to tackle it.”
The total deaths as a result of Coronavirus now stands at 45.874, an increase of 119 as of today.
The National Institute for Economics and Social Research has published a study which shows that UK unemployment could rise to 10% when the government ends the furlough scheme. According to NIESR’s research, many of the jobs that will be lost if the government were to end the Furlough scheme in November could be protected if the scheme were to continue until next year.
The National Food Strategy has drawn attention to the connection between poor diet and food poverty in a recent report. In the report the agency state that “one of the miserable legacies of Covid-19 is likely to be a dramatic increase in unemployment and poverty and therefore hunger.” NFS suggest that in order to combat the harmful effects of Coronavirus fuelled food poverty more people should be made eligible for free school meals. Currently 1.5 million children are entitled to free school meals, the agency suggests increasing that number to 2.8 million. According to the study on 1% of packed lunches have meet nutritional standards.
The total deaths as a result of Coronavirus now stand at 45,677, an increase of 123 as of today.
The number of people infected by Coronavirus in the UK has stopped decreasing. There are currently 2,000 people infected with the virus who are not in hospitals or care homes, according to the ONS. This data is based on the 114,674 swab tests carried in the six weeks leading up to July 19. The R number, which measures the rate of infections, also remains unchanged between 0.7-0.9.
Boris Johnson has urged everyone to get a flu vaccine to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed in the event of a second wave.