| Graduate appointments in Parliament | Part II |
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Experiences of recent recruits House of Commons Library - continued Graham VidlerLike many of my colleagues, I had a far from conventional entry to the Library. A year into my PhD, a shortage of cash led me to respond to a Guardian advertisement and become half a social security statistician in the Social & General Statistics section. Six months later, in October 1995, a full-time vacancy arose in the section and I decided to swap academia for Parliament. On joining the Library my first impressions veered from awe at working at the heart of British political life to blind panic at some of the questions I was expected to answer. The downside of MPs' respect for our research service is that they expect a high standard of service from every member of staff whether they've ten years' experience or ten minutes'. Fortunately, colleagues are always on hand to offer guidance and advice and, before long, I learnt that someone asking to speak to "someone who knows all about social security statistics" might in fact find it helpful to speak to me. Two years later, I feel reasonably confident in my knowledge of my subjects.... until the next question, at least. One thing you do learn quickly is that you never know what you'll be asked next; MPs' interests are extremely broad and their questions can be remarkably esoteric. So what do I actually do? "Provision of an impartial research service to Members and their personal staff", I believe it says in my job description. What that means in practice is that I support Members across their wide range of roles - as politicians, legislators, constituency advice centres and the rest. The questions we're asked, therefore, might range from costing opposition policies for reforming the NHS to finding reasons why a constituent's pension hasn't increased by as much as they hoped. Each question is as important as each other, and each presents its own challenges in ascertaining exactly what a Member requires and how best to meet her or his needs. As my section's name suggests we cover an extremely broad range of subject areas. If an enquiry's not directly concerned with the economy and the answer's a number it comes to us. In conjunction with colleagues, I cover statistics on health, social security, energy, transport and demography. While termed statisticians, we rarely get involved in complex number-crunching. Our role is more to advise Members of the appropriate statistics to support their case or to illustrate a point. The ability to present often-obtuse material in an easily-digestible form is then one of the main strengths required for our job. So too is the patience required to glean a Member's exact requirements, particularly as many requests come through research assistants who often have no more than a scribbled note from their Member to go on themselves. Above all, however, the job requires the ability to switch concentration from task to task at a moment's notice; no matter what I have planned, my working day tends to be dictated by the requests which come over the phone. Whether I'm working on fuel prices or population projections, when a Member calls for a chat about that morning's waiting list figures I need to have something sensible to say. With these competing demands on our time, it is rarely possible to answer an enquiry in as much depth as we'd like. Rather we're engaged in a constant round of balancing priorities with the aim of answering every enquiry as well as possible, rather than putting all our effort into one. Our strengths are answering a wide range of enquiries well, not one enquiry perfectly. The evidence that our work is appreciated is everywhere. Members use our work widely - in debate, appearing on Question Time, issuing press releases - and it is extremely rewarding to find references to "figures produced by the House of Commons Library" in Hansard or in the press. And the rewards of the job don't stop at the end of the working day. The Library enjoys a friendly working environment, which feeds into a wide range of social activities. |
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| © Parliamentary copyright 1997 | Revised 16 July 1998 |