As reported in The Guardian, Sir Joseph Pilling is to review the independence and effectiveness of theIndependent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso). The appointments panel, which is separate from Ipso itself, has a majority of non-industry members.

More on IPSO

 

The good news today is that after it was announced that the practice of printing laws on vellum would end in April, the Cabinet Office has agreed to meet the costs in order to continue.

As all w4mp correspondence is carefully written in charcoal ink on vellum here in our scriptorium before being transcribed by specially trained pangolins, we are relieved to hear the news.

Please take note of this important service available to those working in Westminster.

Places available at the House of Commons Nursery

The House of Commons Nursery, located on the First Floor of 1 Parliament Street, is a bright and modern facility with a maximum capacity of up to 40 children (aged three months to five years). The setting offers a stimulating and secure environment for children’s personal educational development.

The Nursery is operational 51 weeks a year and is open from 8.00am – 6.00pm, Mon to Fri, with additional pre-booked evening sessions available Mon to Thurs. More information about cost and eligibility can be found on the second page of the flyer, attached at the bottom of this post.

The Nursery was recently rated “Good” overall by Ofsted and a copy of the report is available on the Ofsted website for you to view: Ofsted Full Report 2015 and 2011

The Service Provider

The contracted service providers are London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), a Westminster based organisation established in 1903. LEYF are rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted with exceptionally trained staff and individuals who display great enthusiasm in delivering best-practice childcare. To find out more about LEYF’s values and involvement in the community, please visit LEYF’s website at www.leyf.org.uk . 

For further information or if would like to view the facilities, please contact:

Jo Mills on 020 7219 2948 / millsJO@parliament.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

See this Nursery leaflet for more information.

The nursery prenatal yoga classes have been very well received and additional participants are still very welcome to join the current course which takes place every Friday 9.30-10.30 (until the 8th February 2016).

The six-week course is taught by qualified yoga instructor and Club Manager of Westminster Gym, Lauren Griffin.  The course will continue to run on a rolling basis with the next set of classes starting from Friday 19th February 2016.

Anyone can join this six week course at any point, however pre-booking and payment is still required either at a cost of £30 for the full six weeks or will be calculated based on how many weeks are left of the course at the time of joining.

When: Every Friday 9.30-10.30am

Location: Westminster Gym Studio

The course is open to all parliamentary passholders. Please note that participants must be 14 weeks pregnant or more to join this class.

HMRC has supplied us with the latest guidance on Tax and National Insurance contributions for MPs and Ministers.

This guide is to help MPs and Ministers’ with their own personal Tax and National Insurance only; it is not a guide for constituent casework.

If MPs and Ministers would like a copy of this document, please contact us and we will send one via email.  Please note that we will only send this to @parliament email addresses.

Part 6 of the Energy Bill 2015-16 proposes an amendment to the Climate Change Act to adjust the performance measure used in the UK’s statutory carbon budgets. The new measure would include UK territorial emissions only. With this change, credits or debits from the EU Emissions Trading System would not contribute towards the UK’s performance against its carbon budgets from 2028 onwards.

This POSTbrief introduces the carbon budgets, explains the proposed change and outlines the implications of the proposed change.

Measuring Performance for the Carbon Budgets

The next three constituency events will be in Birmingham on 2nd February and Swansea on 9th February and are open to constituency staff.

To book your place please email constituencystaffopenday@parliament.uk at least a week before each event (preferably earlier).

Full details here.

Please note that links to the old Parliamentary intranet have been removed as of October 2023. Please use search on ParliNet to find relevant current details, if available.

https://parlinet.parliament.uk/house-of-commons-members-staff/

The new Serjeant  at Arms will be Mohammed Amal (Kamal) El-Hajji, who is currently Head of Front of House and VIP Relations at the Ministry of Justice. He will take over from Bob Twigger, who has been acting Serjeant at Arms since Lawrence War’s retirement last September.

Described in The Times as ‘a philosophy-loving Moroccan with a black belt in karate’,  Kamal told Commons Monthly “I am deeply honoured and privileged to be selected for this historic role, which dates from 1415. I look forward to taking up duty and following in the footsteps of previous illustrious Serjeants at Arms in serving Parliament.”

For more see Commons Monthly on the Parliamentary Intranet

The Institute For Government has released a new archive of interviews with former government ministers.

The project, Ministers Reflect, publishes interviews of ministers describing what their work is like – what the challenges are, how they make themselves most effective, and what more is needed to help them work productively towards their policy objectives. The Institute For Government aims to demystify for the public the roles and duties of ministers, in this way ‘promoting effective political leadership’ and helping the government function more effectively.

The archive currently contains interviews from 2010-2015 government with ministers who are no longer in office, and therefore so far has only Conservative and Lib Dem ministers. But this is an ongoing project, and more interviews will be added in the future.

Find the project here.

Other Institute For Government projects:

Contemporary History of Whitehall
The Challenge of Being a Minister