CHAPTER 11: SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
AND ACTIONS
120. We recommend that the House Committee should
continue the travel subsidy offered to state schools outside the
South-East visiting Parliament through the Education Service (paragraph
17).
121. We recommend that the Education Service
should explore ways to encourage teachers and the relevant curriculum
bodies to increase coverage of the House of Lords in the curriculum
(paragraph 20).
122. In our view, members are the greatest ambassadors
for the House. The Committee calls on more members to participate
in the 'Peers in Schools' programme and to talk to groups outside
Parliament. The Committee also recommends that Lords members of
All-Party Groups encourage those Groups to consider how they could
contribute to the outreach and educational work of Parliament
(paragraph 29).
123. We recommend that the House of Lords administration
should draw up options for a shadowing scheme to allow members
who wish to participate to have a range of people shadow their
work (paragraph 32).
124. People should be allowed to embed the House's
proceedings on their websites, so that our proceedings can have
as wide a distribution as possible on the internet. We recommend
that a trial start as soon as possible. We have invited the BBC
and the House of Lords administration to bring forward proposals
for how the House can maximise potential synergies with the BBC's
forthcoming 'Democracy Live' website (paragraph 44).
125. We recommend that the administration work
in partnership with already established websites catering for
interest groups (paragraph 46).
126. We recommend that there be a pilot exercise
in which an online debate, promoted with a targeted section of
the public, would be run in parallel with a debate in the Lords
Chamber (paragraph 56).
127. We recommend that other pre-legislative
scrutiny committees should invite the public to submit comments
via the parliamentary website on the draft bill being scrutinised
(paragraph 60).
128. We recommend that information and documentation
related to the core work of the House of Lords (including Bills,
Hansard, transcripts of public committee meetings, evidence submitted
to committees, committee reports, records of divisions, expenses
and the register of Lords' interests) should be produced and made
available online in an open standardised electronic format that
enables people outside Parliament to analyse and re-use the data
(paragraph 66).
129. We recommend further integration of the
various information sets (such as Bills, Hansard, records of divisions,
the register of Lords' interests) on the parliamentary website
(paragraph 73).
130. We recommend that the presentation of Bills
on the parliamentary website be developed so as to make the legislative
process more transparent (paragraph 76).
131. We recommend that it be possible online
to look back and see how a Bill has been amended as it moves through
Parliament (paragraph 76).
132. We recommend that the House of Lords administration
invite officials in the Commons and PICT to explore with them
the feasibility of creating an online system where people can
sign up to receive electronic alerts and updates about particular
Bills or portions of Bills relevant to their interests (paragraph
77).
133. The Government should work with Parliament
to implement common standards for the categories of information
we mention in this paragraph, so as to improve the flow of information
between Government and Parliament and to enhance the public's
ability to re-use that information (paragraph 78).
134. We call on the Government to start producing
Bills in an electronic format which both complies with "open
standards" and is readily re-usable (paragraph 79).
135. In relation to Bills, we also recommend
that, for each Government Bill that significantly amends an earlier
Act, the Government should produce an accompanying informal document
to show the original legislation and how the Bill would change
it (paragraph 80).
136. We recommend that the Government produce
these documents as a matter of course before the Second Reading
of a Bill in the House of Lords and that the House make them publicly
available via the Bill pages of the parliamentary website (paragraph
80).
137. We ask the Government to explain how and
within what timescale our recommendations will be incorporated
into the work that Sir Tim Berners-Lee will lead on opening
access to data (paragraph 81).
138. We recommend that there should be a trial
period in the Lords in the 2009-10 parliamentary session during
which divisions are recorded (paragraph 83).
139. We recommend that there should be greater
access to the House of Lords for factual filming (paragraph 89).
140. We recommend that the administration revise
the leaflet setting out the regulations governing filming (paragraph
89).
141. We recommend that a more appropriate room
be assigned for interviews (paragraph 89).
142. We recommend that all public meetings of
Lords committees be webcast with video as well as audio (paragraph
92).
143. We recommend that the parliamentary website
provide contextual information alongside webcast House of Lords
proceedings (paragraph 92).
144. We recommend a review of the parliamentary
language used in the House of Lords to make it easier for people
outside the House to understand our proceedings (paragraph 104).
145. 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 (paragraph
114).
Actions arising from our recommendations
146. Of course, recommendations alone don't change
anything. What is needed is action. To this end, we call for changes
to the governance arrangements for the House of Lords information
services, with a view to increasing member involvement. We have
asked the Director for Information Services to draw up an action
plan against which progress implementing our recommendations can
be measured, detailing the deliverable activities for each recommendation
and showing who is responsible for delivering them and by what
date.
147. We have already started to act to make the
House of Lords more open and transparent and we will do more in
this direction over the coming year, as we show below. The Committee
cannot, however, implement all of its recommendations. The ability
to implement some of our recommendations lies with other committees
within the House or with the Government. What follows explains
who can act to realise our recommendations.
Actions the Committee has already
taken:
- We have approved members uploading their contributions
to the House's proceedings onto YouTube.
- We have looked at a pilot demonstrator integrating
video and Lords Hansard, which would enable users to watch, listen
to and read a past debate on the same screen at the same time,
and decided that development should continue with a view to offering
a full service to the public by summer 2010.
- We have invited the Director of Information Services
to bring forward proposals by the end of the year for establishing
a database of members' areas of expertise and interest.
Actions the Committee will take:
- We will consider the practicalities of running
a pilot exercise in which an online debate for the public would
run in parallel with a debate in the Lords Chamber.
- We will consider options for working with partner
organisations to develop online pupil parliaments and spaces for
themed topic-based discussions for young people.
- We will periodically review progress towards
information and documentation related to the core work of the
House of Lords being produced and made available online in an
open standardised electronic format that enables people outside
Parliament to analyse and re-use the data.
- In December 2009, we will review progress towards
the integration of the various information sets (such as Bills,
Hansard, records of divisions, the register of Lords' interests)
on the parliamentary website.
- Later this year, we will review the arrangements
for broadcasting Lords proceedings to make the footage more engaging.
- We will invite the House to agree that there
should be a trial period in the 2009-10 parliamentary session
during which divisions in the Lords are recorded from within the
division lobbies.
- We will write to the Chairman of the Press Gallery
to propose that the House of Lords offers information sessions
to members of the press gallery.
- We 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. We will
at the same time examine the case for the House producing an accurate
and impartial summary of debates and consider the various issues
involved.
- We will consider proposals for a strategy to
improve access for people with disabilities (including learning
disabilities and mental health issues) to parliamentary information.
- We will, within two years, review the implementation
of our recommendations in this report.
Actions the Committee recommends
the House Committee should take:
- We recommend that the House Committee continue
the travel subsidy offered to state schools outside the South-East
visiting Parliament through the Education Service.
Actions the Committee recommends
the Administration and Works Committee should take:
- We recommend that the Administration and Works
Committee allow greater access to the House of Lords for factual
filming.
- We recommend that the Administration and Works
Committee review the leaflet setting out the regulations governing
photography, filming, sound recording, painting, sketching, mobile
telephones and pagers and produce a revised version.
- We recommend that the Administration and Works
Committee assign a more appropriate room for interviews.
Actions the Committee recommends
the Government should take:
- We recommend that the Government should work
with Parliament to implement common information standards so as
to improve the flow of information between Government and Parliament
and to enhance the public's ability to re-use that information.
- We recommend that the Government produce its
bills in an electronic format which both complies with "open
standards" and is readily re-usable.
- We recommend that, for each Government Bill that
significantly amends an earlier Act, the Government produce as
a matter of course an accompanying informal document to show the
original legislation and how the Bill would change it.
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