Are the Lords listening? Creating connections between people and Parliament - Information Committee Contents


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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