News
100 years ago Parliament passed The Representation of the People Act, which gave the first women and all men the right to vote. To celebrate, Parliament have created ‘Your Story Our History’, three short films focusing on laws that have contributed to women’s rights and continued to empower them.
POST has published a list, setting out the topic areas identified of possible parliamentary interest under the 9 different category headings (Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Forestry, Crime, Defence, Education and Skills, Energy, Environment, Health, ICT and Robotics and Transport and Infrastructure).
Where relevant this list will inform the deliberations of the POST Board on POST’s future work programme until it is updated or replaced by future horizon scanning activities. This list of issues was initially identified from academic papers and grey literature as having an impact on public policy, and then peer reviewed to focus on those topic areas of most interest, and then narrowed to those considered to be the highest priority through a workshop with parliamentary staff.
To view the list, click here: http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PB-0027/POST-PB-0027.pdf
The Bill aims to help with the process of “transitioning” the EU’s trade agreements to UK agreements.
The House of Commons Library has published a useful briefing on the Trade Bill. Read the analysis before its second reading on Tuesday.
https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8073
To commemorate the beginning of the year following all the indulgent Christmas celebrations, ParliOUT will be hosting an evening social.
Thursday 18 Jan 2018, 17:30 – 19:00
Costa Coffee | The Grand Building, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5EJ
Contact: Nerys Davies, nerys.davies@cslearning.gov.uk
Please RSVP to parliout@parliament.uk to let us know if you’d like to attend so we can expect you.
We understand that the idea of coming to an event without knowing anyone can be quite a daunting experience. A pre-meet will happen between 5pm – 5.30pm at Westminster station (between St. Stephen’s Tavern and Tesco Express) for people that would like to meet before the event.
Committee member Nerys Davies will be facilitating this. To contact Nerys regarding the pre-meet, email: nerys.davies@cslearning.gov.uk
Find out more about ParliOUT on the Parliament website.
Following on from her article on Commons Doorkeeper, Sarah Binstead-Chapman, Kate Forrester, Political reporter for HuffPost UK has written another interesting article, this time about Farrah Bhatti and the role of Commons Clerk
You can find the article here: Commons Clerk: I Had No Idea How Hard MPs Worked Until I Came To Parliament
Kate Forrester, Political reporter for HuffPost UK has written a very interesting article about Sarah Binstead-Chapman and her role as House of Commons Doorkeeper.
You can find the article here:
House Of Commons Doorkeeper Lifts Lid On What It’s Really Like To Work In Parliament
The life of a bag-carrier or researcher might seem to be entirely dedicated to the task of unlocking the mysteries of Parliament, but now there’s a new way to test your skills – ‘Unlock Parliament’, a brand new immersive experience at Westminster.
The mysterious ‘Agent N’ will set you a series of puzzles and other clues (including some via video link). Your objective is to move Agent N’s rather surprising new Bill through Parliament.
With the clock ticking, you will need to work as a team to make some tough decisions as quickly as possible. Can you solve the puzzles and clues in time to pass the Bill into Law?
‘Unlock Parliament’ is fun and suitable for all ages (minimum recommended age 8 years). Perfect for couples, families and groups of friends, and all kids go free! And who knows – you might learn more about Parliamentary procedure!
To find out more, please call the Bookings Team on x4114 or visit the web page.
UK Parliament Week 2017 was the biggest to date. In total, 4596 activities took place across the country during UK Parliament Week and over 360,000 people participated in some way. There was at least one event in every single UK Parliament constituency with an average of 7. All of this was made possible by the partnerships that we’ve spent almost a year working on.
Find out more on the Parliament Week website.
UK Parliament Week 2018 will take place on 12 – 18 November 2018. Look out for information coming soon about plans for UK Parliament Week 2018.
![Jovica Trajkovski [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://xz71da.n3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/London_-_panoramio_190.jpg?time=1713931406)
We have heard from the cross-party Working Group currently looking into harassment and bullying in Parliament. The survey they will be conducting is an important way to gather information in confidence about the current situation, and we encourage you to complete it when it is posted.
w4mp team.
In light of the stories of harassment and bullying in parliament, the Prime Minister has convened a cross-party Working Group on an Independent Complaints and Grievance Policy. The group are currently working on a proposal to make Parliament a safe and fair place to work, and the policy will be available to those that work in, or with, Parliament.
As members of the Working Group, we will be asking you to complete a short survey. This will give us a preliminary view of your experiences relating to bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment.
We will only ask for limited demographic information, but we want to hear directly from you so that we can act quickly in implementing a solution. The survey will help us to better understand the current situation, identify the things that the independent policy needs to tackle and hear how people think this might work best. The survey is being sent to a wide range of people who work in and with Parliament, not just those employed by the two Houses or working for Members or Peers.
We have commissioned BMG to conduct the survey for us, who are an independent organisation with survey expertise. We will circulate the details of the survey link in the next few days, and ask you to complete it online as soon as possible. We will also distribute information about the survey link in hard copy for people who do not use a computer regularly in the course of their work.
Please note that the deadline for completing the survey is Sunday 3rd December. The initial findings will inform the proposal that the Working Group will be putting together in December.
We would like to make it clear that the survey is anonymous and that BMG only report responses above a certain number. This ensures all information remains completely confidential. BMG Research is a member of the Market Research Society, which is bound by its Code of Conduct not to provide personal details without formal permission of the individual.
The Working Group would like to encourage you to complete the survey – we are aware of a number of surveys that you may also have been asked to complete, but the only survey conducted by the Working Group is the one you will receive from BMG.
It is vital that the Working Group is able to hear from those affected by these important issues, those who work on the estate, and those who care about this issue – we want to make sure we get this right.
Electrical testing will take place in the Palace of Westminster Sunday 26 November, Sunday 3 and Sunday 10 December, beginning at 8am and ending at 5pm on each day. There will be multiple short power outages during each day. All electrical services will be affected during these outages.
If you work in the Palace you should shut down any PCs and work on laptops where possible.
Support services will be on site for the duration of the tests and announcements will be made before each one.