CHAPTER 9: INFORMING PEOPLE ABOUT THE
WORK OF THE HOUSE
110. Lord Lipsey suggested to the Committee that
the Information Office should circulate "to all peers once
a yearand more widely if desireda 'top 5' or 'top
10' of lordly achievements" in influencing or changing government
policy in general and/or legislation in particular" (p 141).
Lord Howe of Aberavon advocated a similar development. He proposed
that the House should issue a press release after it passes a
bill or after a stage during which the House significantly amends
a bill. The press release would identify "the quality of
the participants" and "the impact of the work of the
House on that particular billidentifying not the negative
sounding 'defeats' of the Government but the quality and number
of changes made in a bill" (p 136). Similarly, Lord
Hunt of Chesterton recommended that the House should follow the
example of the Scottish Parliament, which provides a "running
commentary for MSPs and the public about the progress of a Bill.
Nothing like that happens at Westminster, and we and the public
are mostly in the dark" (p 136). In a recent debate
on people and Parliament, Lord Soley called for the House to produce
an edited version of Hansard with pictures in order to make the
House more accessible to the public.[20]
111. There is a case for these developments,
and we agree that they could increase public understanding of
the work of the House of Lords. But how would they work and what
would they cost? The Committee will later this year examine
how the House might best inform the public accurately and impartially
about how the House amends particular items of legislation (whether
by press release or by other means). The Committee will at the
same time examine the case for the House producing an accessible
accurate and impartial summary of debates and consider the various
issues involved. We have asked the administration to provide information
on whether other parliaments produce such press releases or summaries
and to prepare samples to show what such documents might look
like for the Lords.
Information and access for people
with disabilities
112. The Committee is keen to ensure that the
House relates better to peopleand we want all groups of
people to feel included. When our Chairman put a video
on YouTube to launch the inquiry, people noticed that we had not
made the video accessible to people with a hearing impairment,
and we rectified that omission by providing a transcript. Similarly,
contributors to our web forum raised the need to make the parliamentary
website accessible to those who are visually impaired. The Committee
is publishing a summary of its report in Easy-Read.
113. Pointing out that there was not a Parliament-wide
strategy for improving access for people disabilities, Andrew
Dismore MP, Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights,
asked "whether palantypists and British Sign Language translators
could be made available at Committee public meetings, and whether
and how people could access parliamentary information in formats
such as Braille, audio, British Sign Language and Easy Read"
(pp 113-14).
114. We recommend that the House of Lords
administration invite officials in the Commons to work with them
to develop a Parliament-wide strategy for improving access for
people with disabilities (including learning disabilities and
mental health issues) both to Parliament and to parliamentary
information.
20 Lords Hansard, 16 June 2009, columns 1026-27. Back
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