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Researcher of the Year Awards 2008
Added 8 February 2008
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The House Magazine Parliamentary Researcher of the Year Awards 2008, in association with the Federation of Small Businesses, winners announced – full details below.
Jo Holland, senior parliamentary researcher to Professor Steve Webb, MP for Northavon, was last night named Overall Researcher of the Year at the second House Magazine Parliamentary Researcher of the Year Awards, in association with the FSB.
Jo, who has been in her post for eight years, was selected as Liberal Democrat Researcher of the Year and then voted overall winner by the expert judging panel.
Jo wins an all expenses trip for two to Washington DC. All category winners received a trophy and £100 Westminster Bookshop vouchers.
At the ceremony in The Atrium - 4 Millbank, attended by over 150 parliamentary researchers, MPs and Peers, the awards were presented by Laura Kuenssberg from the BBC’s Daily Politics Show.
Other winners included Flora Rose, senior parliamentary researcher for the House of Lords Opposition Whips Office, who was presented with the FSB Special Award by John Wright, Chairman of the FSB. This award was for the researcher which had done the most on business issues during 2007.
Editor of The House Magazine, Gisela Stuart MP commented: “Without our Researchers Parliament would be a poorer place. They help us prepare speeches, find out facts, pull together political arguments and generally provide us with the back up we rely on. Parliamentary Researchers contribution should be recognised, and these Awards do just that. They highlight excellence and I hope the winners will be proud of their achievements.”
John Wright, Chairman of the FSB added: “Parliamentary researchers are the unheralded heroes of political life. We want to recognise the work they do behind the scenes conducting research, drafting speeches and preparing presentations for parliamentarians. We hope the Parliamentary Researcher of the Year Awards will encourage researchers to engage with business issues and to get in touch with the FSB for information and research.”
The full list of winners:
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Conservative Researcher of the Year - Sarah Chilman
Parliamentary researcher to Ian Taylor, MP for Esher and Walton
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Crossbench or other Parties’ Researcher of the Year - Anne Harvey
Parliamentary researcher to Angus MacNeil, MP for Na h-Eileanan An Iar
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Labour Researcher of the Year - Dan Whittle
Senior parliamentary assistant to Anne Snelgrove, MP for South Swindon
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Liberal Democrat Researcher of the Year (and Overall Researcher of the Year) – Jo Holland
Senior parliamentary researcher to Professor Steve Webb, MP for Northavon
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FSB Special Award – Flora Rose
Senior parliamentary researcher for the House of Lords Opposition Whips Office
Researchers from all parties were nominated by MPs, Peers and fellow researchers. The Awards were designed to promote the extremely valuable role that researchers perform within Parliament – whether working on behalf of a MP or Peer.
The following people formed the judging panel:
- John Wright, Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses
- Gisela Stuart MP, Editor, The House Magazine
- Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP
- Michael Gove MP
- Baroness D’Souza
- Richard Hall, Associate Editor, The House Magazine
Information on the awards is available at www.housemag.co.uk/researchersawards
The House Magazine is the only political title that provides an impartial weekly read - and which offers MPs and Peers the chance to write articles about the issues they want to see raised. Managed by a cross-party editorial team of MPs and overseen by a panel of senior parliamentarians, the publication contains articles and features by some of the most senior politicians, journalists and political commentators.
Comments from W4MP
Congratulations Jo, Sarah, Anne, Dan and Flora! We have a well established record of signing up previous winners of these awards as writers of the W4MP guides; we'll be in touch soon.
Now, is there
anyone out there who wants to sponsor a Caseworker of the Year award
next year? Get in touch with us at:
editor@w4mp.org.
