What is ‘Prorogation’?

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Need some light shedding on this strange term?  Here are some definitions.

From Parliament’s own website:
https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/prorogation/

Prorogation marks the end of a parliamentary session.  It is the formal name given to the period between the end of a session of Parliament and the State Opening of Parliament that begins the next session.  The parliamentary session may also be prorogued when Parliament is dissolved and a general election called.

How is prorogation marked?

The Queen formally prorogues Parliament on the advice of the Privy Council.

Prorogation usually takes the form of an announcement, on behalf of the Queen, read in the House of Lords.  As with the State Opening, it is made to both Houses and the Speaker of the House of Commons and MPs attend the Lords Chamber to listen to the speech.

The same announcement is then read out by the Speaker in the Commons.  Following this both the House of Commons and House of Lords are officially prorogued and will not meet again until the State Opening of Parliament.

Prorogation announcement

The prorogation announcement sets out the major Bills which have been passed during that session and also describes other measures which have been taken by the Government.

Prorogation: what happens to Bills still in progress?

Prorogation brings to an end nearly all parliamentary business.

However, Public Bills may be carried over from one session to the next, subject to agreement.  The first Bill to be treated in this way was the Financial Services and Markets Bill in session 1998-99.

From the BBC’s Politics pages:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/a-z_of_parliament/default.stm

When a parliamentary session comes to an end, Parliament is said to “prorogue” until the next session begins.

Following the prorogation ceremony all outstanding business falls, including early day motions and questions which have not been answered.

Any uncompleted bills have to be re-introduced afresh in the next session.

The power to prorogue Parliament lies with the Queen, who does so on the advice of the Privy Council.

The ceremony

In an echo of the state opening of Parliament, the Speaker and members of the Commons attend the upper chamber where they listen to a speech by the leader of the House of Lords reviewing the session’s work.

By ancient tradition, legislation which has passed all parliamentary stages is given royal assent in Norman French using the words “La Reyne le veult”, which roughly translates as “the Queen wills it”.

The Speaker then returns to the Commons and reads out the same speech.

Following this, the House is officially prorogued and the Commons will not meet again until the next state opening of Parliament.

There’s also some more useful stuff in
House of Commons Factsheet P4 “Sittings of the House” at: 
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/p04.pdf

and you can view the most recent prorogation at https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/occasions/prorogation/

Groups which staff can join

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Clubs and groups tend to come and go pretty quickly and we rely on you to tell us when there’s something new or when a club dies.  Please help us by sending any current information via the Feedback Form.

 

 

 

 

 

Guides to Commons Library Services

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The House of Commons Library is a research and information service based in UK Parliament.

We provide politically impartial research, analysis, statistics and information resources. Our work helps MPs scrutinise legislation, prepare for debates, develop policies and support their constituents.

Our publications are available to everyone at commonslibrary.parliament.uk

The easiest way to learn about the Commons Library is to book or arrange a ‘Make the most of the Library’ session.

In this one-hour course, you will:

  • Learn about the ready-made research available to you
  • Find out how to use our data-dashboards to access relevant statistics
  • Find out how the Library’s request service works
  • Discover the range of online resources available for both casework and policy research

 

1. Services for Members’ Staff

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/about-us/services/

The Commons Library provides a range of services for MPs and their staff, including impartial research and access to resources and training.

Publications: Our publications offer politically impartial analysis and statistics. We cover legislation, topical issues, policy and constituency issues. Our briefings and data tools are written by our expert staff and are available online. Read about the different types of research: https://w4mp.org/w4mp/w4mp-guides/the-library/research-briefings-standard-notes-and-debate-packs/

Confidential Request Service: We answer MPs’ questions and requests for bespoke briefings. These tailored and timely responses help MPs fulfil their parliamentary duties and represent their constituents. Our confidential service includes fact-checking, policy development and analysis, and help to answer constituents’ questions.

Information Resources: MPs, their staff and parliamentary staff can access our curated collection of books, journals, databases, news subscriptions and parliamentary material.

Training and events: We offer training, support and talks on topical issues from our subject specialists. Our training and events help MPs, their staff and parliamentary staff get the most from the Library.

Workspace: Members’ Library is a quiet workspace for MPs, and a place to access our books and newspapers, make research requests and pick up printed copies of our publications. MPs’ staff can go into the Members’ Library to submit a research request or take out books on loan.

 

2.  Online resources from the Library

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/resources/

The Commons Library provides books, journals and online resources for MPs, MPs’ staff and parliamentary staff. On this page you can:

  • Browse the Commons Library catalogue
  • Search ejournal articles
  • Find online resources and databases, including Parliament and Government databases
  • Browse news and media subscriptions
  • Find help and guidance

 

3. Training and events

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/about-us/services/training-and-events/

The Commons Library arranges inductions, training and events for MPs, MPs’ staff and parliamentary staff to help you get the best out of the Library:

Make the most of the Library sessions: The easiest way to learn about Library services is to sign up for one of our Introduction to the Library sessions. The course provides you with the tools to:

  • Find the ready-made research available to you
  • Use our data-dashboards to access relevant statistics
  • Make use of the Library’s request service
  • Discover the range of online resources available for both casework and policy research

Events and guest speakers: House of Commons Library subject specialists give occasional talks on topics of interest to Members and their staff and other @parliament.uk users.  They also invite guest speakers from organisations such as the National Audit Office.

Regular training courses: The Library provides regular training courses on parliamentary search, Nexis News, books, journals and more.

Guidance and training on resources and guidance: The Library has prepared guides to the range of online resources and databases available to Parliament, such as news subscriptions, NewsBank, Grantfinder and more. The guides cover:

  • What the resource is
  • Some examples of queries the resource can be used to answer
  • Some key tips on searching
  • What training is available
  • Links to further guidance such as online help, user guides and video tutorials

 

4. Library Loans Service

The Commons Library catalogue contains records of the Library’s collection of hard copy and electronic books, pamphlets, reports, official publications, periodicals (journals), corporate subscriptions and online reference sources. Each record gives details of author, title, publisher, publication date and Library location.

It also provides an inter-library loans service for items not held by the Library (including periodical articles).

You can reserve a book or other stored material using the online catalogue. You can also view the status of your loans, reserve items, and request the loan of an item that you cannot find on the catalogue.

Explore the Commons Library’s extensive collection of online and hardcopy materials: https://commonslibrary.koha-ptfs.co.uk/.

 

5. Request Service

You can contact our team of subject specialists for help with research or information about any area relevant to you.

Whether you’re reviewing or developing policy, preparing for a speech or media appearance, helping a constituent or trying to understand an issue affecting your local area, Library staff can answer your questions in confidence.

It’s helpful to the Library staff to know exactly what you need and when. For example, you may be looking for statistics about your constituency, analysis of government policy, an overview of the law in a particular area or information on the support individuals can expect from public sector organisations. Sharing relevant correspondence or documents will help them understand your request and how we can help.

It may be that the information you’re looking for is already published on the Library’s website. Before submitting a request for information and research from the Library’s team of subject specialists, please do look at the material already published on the Library website: commonslibrary.parliament.uk

Specialist research can also be requested: see ParliNet for details.

Our Subject Specialist Directory provides contact details of specialists in each section and includes information on how to submit a request:

6. Commons Library email subscriptions

Get the latest Commons Library research and curated newsletters delivered to your inbox. This includes:

  • Research alerts: Subscribe to receive email alerts every time we publish new research about the topics you’re interested in.
  • In brief: Get business related research from the Commons Library at the start of every week.
  • Current awareness bulletins: Receive topical updates from Library researchers. Bulletins cover a range of topics and include news articles, parliamentary material, Library research, statistics, talks and more.
  • Economic updates: Get weekly economic updates with the latest economic indicators, data releases and briefings.

Sign up to the subscriptions in the link above.

Follow the Library on X: @CommonsLibrary

Campaigning: Petitions

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Presenting a petition to 10 Downing Street in person

Petitioning 10 Downing Street can be a simple and effective way of publicising a cause.

Presenting a petition to 10 Downing Street can provide an excellent photo opportunity and highlight a campaign in a way that could be attractive to your local press. It’s also a relatively simple thing to organise.  Please note, however, that the Prime Minister never meets petitioners – even if they are cute children or war veterans.

  • In the first instance, all petition requests go to have to go to the Downing Street Liaison Office.  You can ring them on 0203 276 2934 between 0700 and 1500 hrs but it is better to email the full details to PaDPMailbox-DSLO@met.police.uk at least two weeks in advance of the date you wish to hand over your petition.
  • Petitions can be delivered available 365 days a year, Monday to Sunday 0900 – 1800 hrs, exceptn on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings up until 1430 hrs.  The Metropolitan Police will make every effort to facilitate arrangements and delivery of the petition; however matters of State must take precedence. As a result alterations to booked arrangements might be made with short notice, in such cases, petitions may be delayed, accepted at the gate, or you may be offered an alternative appointment.
  • Time slots for delivering petitions are allocated by the Police, so you will need to ask them which times are available.  The Police have a lot of people to accommodate, so if your desired time slot is not available, please be flexible.  The earlier you apply, the more chance you have of getting the time you want.
  • The Police will email you a form to complete and return to them.  Petition Forms MUST reach their office allowing seven (7) full and clear working days before its delivery date to enable the Metropolitan Police to make the necessary arrangements with Downing Street, and enable security checks to be completed.
  • No more than six petitioners will be permitted entry to Downing Street.  MPs, Peers, accredited cameramen and press do not count as petitioners.  However, you must notify the Metropolitan Police if such persons will be accompanying your petition party.  Please note that MP’s staff/interns must be included in the six petitioners.
  • The Metropolitan Police recognise the importance of these events to petitioners and will endeavour to facilitate photography or film recording of the occasion where possible.
  • All petitioners must bring photographic ID such as a passport or driving licence with them on the day.
  • No placards, banners, loudhailers or fancy dress or any props will be permitted.  National costume will not be excluded.
  • Downing Street will only accept a maximum petition of one 2500 sheet box of A4 paper through the door of No 10.  The remainder should be sent to 9 Howick Place, SW1P 1AA.
  • On the relevant day and time, attend the front gates of Downing Street and introduce yourself to the Police Officer on duty at the pedestrian gate.  The officer will direct you and your party through security search prior to delivery of the petition.  Please note: all petitioners will be subject to a search as a condition of entry into Downing Street.
  • If Downing Street can’t accept the petition, they’ll write to you to explain why.  You can then edit and resubmit your petition.  Once it’s approved, you’ll be emailed and informed – usually within five working days.
  • Remember, your constituents have probably come a long way to petition the Prime Minister.  If you can, give them a short tour of the Palace and buy them a drink in the Terrace Cafeteria.  Make them feel they have had a day out!

e-Petitions

Any British Citizen or UK resident can start a petition, and you will need five other people to support the application.  Simply go to https://petition.parliament.uk/ and follow the instructions on that page.  There is an 80 character limit for the title of your petition and you need to be very clear what you are asking the Government to do.  Once you have submitted the title, the next page will ask you to provide further detail on what you want the Government or Parliament to do, and why you want them to do it.  You can find further information on how petitions work here: https://petition.parliament.uk/help#standards

Once your petition is live, you will be able to publicise it and anyone will be able to come to the website and sign it.  They will be asked to give their name and address and an email address that can be verified.  The system is designed to identify duplicate names and addresses, and will not allow someone to sign a petition more than once.  Anyone signing a petition will be sent an email asking them to click a link to confirm that they have signed the petition.  Once they have done this, their name will be added to the petition.

Your petition will show the total number of signatures received.  It will also display the names of signatories, unless they have opted not to be shown.

If a petition receives more than 10,000 signatures, then it will receive a response from the Government.  If it receives more than 100,000 signatures, then it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons.

Downing Street will email the petition organiser and everyone who has signed the petition via the website giving details of the Government’s response.

Ask your MP to present a public petition to Parliament

A public petition is a petition to the House of Commons presented by an MP.  They must ask clearly for the House of Commons to take some action.  A petition cannot request a grant or charge, but it can ask for a change in policy.

There is detailed guidance on how to do this on the parliament website: https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/sign-a-petition/paper-petitions/

One thing that page doesn’t tell you, is that the declaratory paragraph can only be one single sentence.  Many petitions get round this by using semicolons to separate out the different parts.  For example “This petition notes that xxx; further that yyy; and further that zzz“.

Once a Public Petition has been accepted, it will be printed in Hansard, as will the Government’s response once it has been issued.

Email etiquette

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Isn’t it annoying when people send you e-mails that don’t contain any punctuation?  Or when you are sent an e-mail which has 300 recipients, and you scroll down through all the names to find a one-line message at the bottom?  Honestly, some people should use a bit of Netiquette!

What is Netiquette? 

Internet Etiquette, or ‘Netiquette’ is the unofficial ‘code of conduct’ for Internet users; a guide to avoiding inadvertently offending those with whom you communicate by e-mail and other electronic means such as chat rooms, instant messengers and message boards.

Blind Copying

Blind copying, or ‘BCC’ is a useful way of hiding the names of the recipients of an e-mail.  There are three main reasons for using the ‘BCC field’:

  1. to keep e-mail addresses private (so that the recipients aren’t able to copy the e-mail addresses of everyone else on the list)
  2. to prevent long lists of names appearing when printing or forwarding messages – some recipients get so irritated by long recipient lists, that they just delete the message without reading it.
  3. To prevent accidental clicking ‘Reply to All’ occurring.

If you can’t see the BCC field when you open up a new message in Outlook, simply click VIEW > BCC field and it will appear.  It will then show up on all new messages, unless you choose to hide it again.

Shouting

When people type messages which are all in capital letters, e.g. with the Caps Lock on, it is referred to as ‘shouting’ and is considered very rude indeed.

Use Appropriate Language

Just as in face-to-face communication, adjust your language according to your audience.  Avoid swearing or using abusive language, don’t write anything which could be construed as sexist, racist, homophobic or comments which could incite arguments (flaming)

Punctuation

Rules of punctuation still exist in e-mails.  When it comes to punctuation, you should treat an e-mail in the same manner as a formal written letter.  Lack of punctuation not only makes a message very difficult to read, but also makes the writer look very unprofessional and, on occasion, a bit of an idiot.

Emoticons

An emoticon is a graphical representation of an emotion.  The most common of these is a ‘smiley’  –   :o)   When looked at sideways, it looks like a smiley face.  These should not be used in formal communication, but are sometimes useful in very informal chat situations where a message you mean as a joke may be misunderstood, or otherwise be deemed rather impolite.  There are many different emoticons and many  lists of them can be found on the Internet, simply by searching on the word “emoticons”.

Post in Haste, Repent at Leisure

If you receive an e-mail which annoys or upsets you, don’t respond to it immediately.  Print it out and keep it for a while.  With e-mail, it’s too easy to whip off a tart response in seconds, hit the ‘send’ button and…..”damn, I got it wrong, I didn’t mean that”.  Too late.  It’s gone, and it’s almost certain you can’t get it back.  Always think before you reply.

Flaming

Flaming is where people make personal (written) attacks, especially in chat rooms, rather than sticking to the topic of conversation.  Flaming should be avoided at all costs, because it spoils the conversation for other members of the group.  Sometimes, flaming occurs because of a misunderstanding, for example when someone has been SHOUTING in their messages.

Beware of ‘Reply All’

Beware of defaulting to use the ‘reply all’ button all the time. Only use ‘reply all’ if your reply is important to all the recipients. Also, using it too often can lead to automatically replying all with an email not intended for all recipients – very embarrassing and a sticky situation to have to escape from.

Avoid Embarrassing Emails

It’s easy to accidentally hit ‘send’ when a message was not yet ready to go. This can be quite embarrassing, especially if you’d intended to change the text later before sending the mail. Since it’s difficult to disable the ‘send’ button, you should make sure the message does no harm even if you hit that button accidentally.

Either:

  • leave the address field empty, or
  • address the message to yourself while you are still composing it.

Only enter the final recipient when you are absolutely ready to send the mail.

Safety Online

Spam

Spam is, quite simply, unsolicited junk mail.  The name ‘spam’ comes from a Monty Python sketch where, on the menu in a cafe, everything comes with spam.

Some people are lucky enough not to get any spam at all, others may get hundreds of unwanted messages a day. Users of the Parliamentary Network benefit from a spam filter, which does catch most of the rubbish before it gets to your inbox.

Spam does not necessarily have to come from unknown sources, a lot of spam comes from friends in the form of jokes and ‘sillies’, which they send to all of their friends, who in turn send it to all of their friends. Before you know it, your e-mail is full of the stuff and you’ve got no work done. If a friend starts sending you unwanted e-mails, ask them to stop.

However, you must never click on an ‘unsubscribe’ link (or any other links) in messages from unknown sources, as you are just confirming to the spammer that you exist, and you’ll probably end up on even more junk mailing lists.

If you receive spam of a racist or obscene nature, especially if it involves children, you can report it (anonymously, if you prefer) to the Internet Watch Foundation (www.iwf.org.uk) who will investigate and take appropriate action.

Personal Information

There is a famous cartoon from the New York Times, showing two dogs at a computer, and one says “On the Internet, no-one knows you’re a dog”.  We can’t reproduce the picture here, for copyright reasons, but you can find it easily enough by searching on the Internet.  Although it’s funny, it’s also a very serious warning.

People you may chat with by e-mail or in chat rooms may not always be who they seem.  Anyone can be nice in such an anonymous setting, but how would you like it if those people started knocking on your door, or phoning you?  Don’t ever give out personal details such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, or information about your family, school or workplace.  There have been many cases of personal details being abused, causing great distress to the victims.

Office Email Policy

You may find it useful to establish an office email policy, which can incorporate the above and any other rules for using email you think appropriate for your office and staff (seek colleagues’ opinions first of course). All employees should sign off on having received the information once it is finalised.

You might consider:

  • how restrictive you should be on the use of email for personal reasons at work. Your policy may like to emphasise that the use of the domain name (@parliament.uk) should be reserved for work-related emails and emails to colleagues only.
  • whether you will require all employees to have an email signature.
  • whether to establish a policy for deleting messages.
  • when to use email and when to use post – is your MP happy for you to contact constituents via email if they have emailed you, or should a letter always be sent?
  • When sending emails outside of the Parliamentary Network, a disclaimer is added automatically, which reads:

“UK Parliament Disclaimer: This e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, or copying is not permitted. This e-mail has been checked for viruses, but no liability is accepted for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail. This e-mail address is not secure, is not encrypted and should not be used for sensitive data.”

  • Do not allow the employee to pass off personal views as representing those of the party or Parliament – you should add your own disclaimer, along the lines of:

“Views expressed in personal emails do not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of the Labour Party/Conservative Party/Liberal Democrats.”

Further reading : The Core Rules of Netiquette, by Virginia Shea

Support in Your Job

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Guides

When you begin working for an MP, you will receive a Members’ Staff Induction Pack, including a letter from the Clerk of the House of Commons that provides links to relevant resources on the Parliamentary Intranet and elsewhere.

Here, you will find a collection of guides to good practice that will offer you advice in carrying out the main activities expected of you in your job.  They are constantly being revised and updated, so if you do print a guide out, please remember to check back from time to time.

Casework

Your Office

Research

Parliament

Others