Chapter 6: Communicating more widely
Internal communications
151.The internal email newsletter, From the Horseshoe, has continued to provide members and members of staff of both Houses with information regarding committee activity including evidence sessions, reports, Government responses and follow-up work. Eighteen editions of the newsletter have been produced in 2021/22 by a member of Liaison Committee staff. Content is also provided for the staff newsletter, Red Carpet News, which is published on the Intranet.
External communications
152.House of Lords committees have continued to develop how they explain their role and work to the public. Committees are supported in explaining their work to the public by the House of Lords Communications department who develop communications strategies for each inquiry and support committees to engage with the media and through other communications channels.
153.The new House of Lords Podcast provided a platform for committee Chairs to explain their work directly to listeners. Over the course of the year 11 committee Chairs and members were interviewed on the podcast.
154.Lords Committees have tried several new approaches to communicating their work over the 2021/22 financial year. Some highlights include:
- The Committee on a National Plan for Sport and Recreation who partnered with Sky News youth news programme FYI to commission a survey of young people’s attitude towards, and participation in, physical activity. This not only resulted in a quantitative survey of 1000 young people that was submitted as evidence to the Committee and informed its report, but also two special editions of FYI which explained the work of the Sport and Recreation Committee and the role of the House of Lords more widely to its young audience.
- The increased use of live tweeting of evidence sessions has resulted in committees, in particular the Economic Affairs Committee, reaching new audiences and growing its following on social media. The Economic Affairs Committee’s live tweeting of its evidence session with the Governor of the Bank of England was used in a string of updates on the day by the Guardian’s Business Live news feed.289
- The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee and Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee published two reports on the Government’s approach to introducing secondary legislation simultaneously. This was supported by a communications strategy that led to the reports being widely covered by Times Radio, The FT290 and featuring on the BBC’s Law in Action Podcast.291
- The Constitution Committee’s report on the future of the Union was supported by a communications strategy focused on delivering opinion piece coverage. It resulted in a record six op-ed pieces from members of the Committee being published in Scottish and Welsh national media and English regional newspapers.
- The Joint Committee on the Online Safety Bill used high profile evidence sessions to build on international interest in its inquiry and achieve high profile global coverage. The Committee also broke new ground with the Chair hosting his own weekly podcast based on oral evidence the Committee had taken that week.
155.Over the course of the financial year there were 10,170 media articles or broadcast features about House of Lords committees. Of these 9,431 were positive in tone, 638 were neutral and 101 were negative.
156.This coverage included 8,902 pieces of online coverage, 398 articles in national newspapers, 235 in regional newspapers, 158 radio features and 138 television news features. Figure 1 sets out the volume of coverage received by Committees with more than 100 media features in the 2021/22 financial year.
Figure 1: Volume of positive media coverage
157.The newspapers most regularly covering Lords committees were: The Daily Telegraph (51 times), The Times (49 times), The Daily Mail (35 times), The Yorkshire Post (30 times) and The Guardian (28 times).
158.The broadcasters most regularly covering Lords committees were: Sky News (62 times), BBC Radio 4 (42 times), Times Radio (18 times), BBC 2 (12 times) and BBC Radio 2 (9 times).
289 ‘Pound lifted by signs of UK jobs recovery; US housing starts hit by surging lumber costs—as it happened’, The Guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2021/may/18/uk-labour-market-recovery-unemployment-rate-payrolls-ftse-pound-business-live [accessed 14 June 2022]
290 ‘The new ‘Government by diktat’ bypasses parliament altogether’, The Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/36091d6c-a542-4253–8261-1a354e60b6cb [accessed 14 June 2022]
291 BBC Radio 4, Law in Action: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0014wtz [accessed 14 June 2022]