House of Commons
a) The status of the Parliamentary
administration: is it part of the civil service (or equivalent), or an
independent and special administration, with its own rules on salaries,
pensions, career development?
One important difference between Parliamentary
bureaucracies is the organisational model, the type of career structure for the
staff, and hence the degree of separation existing between the Parliamentary
administration staff and the rest of the civil service.
The following cases could be considered:
- the level of normative and
organisational independence of the Parliamentary administration from the rest
of the civil service: is there an independent career structure, and what are
the procedures for staff recruitment? (a separate competitive entrance
examination, versus selection from particular categories of civil servants;
entry at the lowest grade, versus at executive grade level; limited court
jurisdiction over internal labour relations; similarities or differences with
other civil servants in relation to pay, pensions and working hours).
Each House
of Parliament in the
The permanent staff of the House of Commons serves with complete
political impartiality, and continues despite prorogations, dissolutions and
changes in government. This is the House of Commons Service - the "Civil
Service" of the House; though it must be emphasised that its staff are not
part of the Government Civil Service. The staff in the House of Commons Service
are involved in diverse matters such as the procedure of the House, security,
housekeeping, provision of information, accounting, reporting debates, and
cooking food.
The House of Commons Commission, a statutory body of six Members of the
House of Commons established under the House of Commons (Administration) Act
1978, is responsible for the management of the House and the provision of
services to Members. The Speaker is Chairman of the Commission, ex officio, and the Leader of the House
[Cabinet Minister with responsibility for parliamentary affairs] is also an ex officio member; one member of the
Commission is nominated by the Leader of the Opposition (normally the “Shadow”
Leader of the House); and three further Members are appointed by the House
(normally one senior backbencher from each of the two main parties and a
representative of the minority parties). Under the 1978 Act the Commission has
overall responsibility for the staffing and expenditure of House Departments,
and in particular approves and lays before the House the annual Estimate for House
administration. In legal terms the Commission is the employer of House staff;
and it is subject to a statutory requirement that the pay and general
conditions of staff should be kept "broadly in line" with those in
the Government Civil Service.
Under the “broadly in line” principle, the terms and conditions of House
of Commons Service are similar to those in the Civil Service, in relation to
pay, pensions and working hours. For
several years there has been some variation between Government Departments on
matters such as pay and working hours.
Under the 1689 Bill of Rights, Parliament exercises “exclusive
cognisance” of its own proceedings and exercises a substantial measure of
control over its own affairs, not subject to any questioning by the courts.
In a leading case in 1935 [R v Graham-Campbell, ex parte Herbert], a judge ruled against a case brought by a Member
of Parliament, who was also a well-known humorist, complaining that alcohol was
being sold in Parliament outside the hours applied to licensed premises in the
country in general. The judge held that
it was up to Parliament to regulate its internal affairs, even to the extent of
selling alcohol at times of the day or night when it was illegal to do so
outside the precincts of Parliament.
The 1967 Select Committee on Parliamentary Privilege cited the
Graham-Campbell judgment as entitling the House “in a proper case [to] claim
exemption from Acts of Parliament which do not expressly apply to it”. As
criteria for “a proper case” have never been established, in practice the view
has been taken that no Act applies to Parliament unless it explicitly says that
it does.
On the basis of the 1935 judgment Parliament has regarded itself in the
past as exempt from laws quite unrelated to its core activities and remote from
the protection of free speech, such as the Health and Safety at Work Act , Food
Safety Act, Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act, Prices and Income Act and the Data Protection Act.
The Employment Act 1990, Trade Union Reform and Employment Relations Act
1993, and the Employment Rights Act 1996 cover Parliament explicitly. The 1996
Act, for example, provides that nothing in any rule of law, or the law and
practice of Parliament should prevent the bringing of civil employment claims
before any court or proceedings before an industrial tribunal. The latest edition of the Staff Handbook
states that in general House of Commons employees have the same rights to equal
opportunities and employment protection under the Employment Rights Act 1996,
etc as other employees in the United Kingdom: “Some legislation, while not
binding on the House, is usually applied as if it were binding, so ensuring
that staff are not disadvantaged compared with “outside” employees”.
The Commission answers Questions in the House: at present, the
representative of the minority parties acts as its spokesman. In practice, the
Commission's power to appoint staff is delegated to Heads of Department, with
the exception of the posts of Clerk of the House, Clerk Assistant, and Serjeant
at Arms (which are Crown appointments) and a few other senior posts (where the
power of appointment has been delegated to the Speaker). The Commission may,
however, be consulted about senior appointments. With these exceptions, recruitment,
promotion and staff circulation are handled by the individual Departments,
subject to the overall guidance of the Finance and Administration Department.
The graduate fast stream competition for the Civil Service is used to
recruit Clerks in the House of Commons of the House of Lords. The fast stream competition is operated by a
recruitment company under a central Government Cabinet Office contract, and is
regulated by the Civil Service Commission to ensure that the competition is
fair.
Most recruitment to the House of Commons Service is by open competition
with a newspaper advertisement leading
to interviews and possibly short written tests fro candidates who best meet the
published criteria for the post. Jobs in
the House of Commons Service are not subject to nationality requirement, but
are open to anyone who has the right to
work in the United Kingdom.
b) Relations between the
political bodies and the Parliamentary administration
Here are a few key issues, by way of example,
on which short comments are sought:
- how much does the
Parliamentary speaker, the degree of his/her “super partes” nature and the
breadth of the Speaker's powers, influence the 'configuration' of the
Parliamentary administration;
- how are Secretary General
(as the person heading the administration) and the other executive officers
appointed? What rules govern their replacement?
- to what degree do 'super
partes' considerations prevail over 'fiduciary' aspects in the way the staff
provide direct support to the political bodies (the Speaker of the House and
the Standing Committee Chairs)?
The Speaker
is Chairman of the statutory House of Commons Commission and exercises
considerable influence over its decisions.
The Commission operates at a strategic level and delegates a substantial
measure of authority to the Board of Management, which comprises the permanent
Heads of Department of the House of Commons Service, under the Chairmanship of
the Clerk of the House.
The posts of Clerk of the House, Clerk Assistant, and Serjeant at Arms
are Crown appointments, which in practice means that the Prime Minister passes
the agreed nomination to the Queen who invariably makes the appointment. The Prime Minister would usually ensure that
nominations were acceptable to the Speaker, and there would also normally be
informal consultations with opposition parties.
Appointments to Heads of Departments may be made as a result of internal
promotion procedures (Clerk of the House, Official Report), external
advertisement (Director of Finance and Administration, Head of Refreshment
Department) or a mixture of the two (Serjeant at Arms, Librarian).
The House of Commons Service has a strong tradition of providing
impartial and professional advice and support to the Speaker, the House and its
Committees.
c) Does the Secretary
General have the chief responsibility and accountability for the
administration? Or are these shared with other senior officers?
Parliamentary bureaucracies differ in terms of
the degree of centralisation and hierarchical structure.
I would be useful to collect comparative data
on the following:
- the features of top
management (for example, is one person accountable to the political body on
behalf of the whole of the administration, or are responsibilities shared between
several executive officers for different areas of activity?);
- what is the status of the
Standing Committees' staff (are they more accountable to the Chair of the
Committee than to the Secretary General, or vice versa?)
- the degree of coordination
and integration that exists between the different offices: How far do middle
grade executive staff inter-operate autonomously?
The Clerk
of the House is the Chief Executive of the House of Commons Service. The heads of the six main Departments (Clerk
of the House, Library, Serjeant at Arms, Official Report, Refreshment and
Finance & Administration) meet together, under the chairmanship of the
Clerk of the House, as the Board of Management. The Clerk of Committees from
the Clerk’s Department is also a member
of the Board, to reflect the fact that the Clerk of the House sits on the Board
as Chief Executive rather than representing the Clerk’s Department. The Board
is the executive body overseeing the administration of the House and is
answerable to the House of Commons Commission.
The Clerk of the House is Accounting Officer for the whole of the House
of Commons Administration Vote, and is therefore responsible for the
expenditure of all the six House departments and for other expenditure covered
by the Administration Vote, including superannuation, police and security
services, postage, telecommunications and computer services. The expenditure
provided for in the House of Commons Administration Vote for 2002-03 is £141.2m
(about €200 million).
In the House of Commons, there are two main kinds of committees:
legislative committees (called “Standing” Committees) which are appointed with
a different membership for each specific legislative proposal which they have
to report to the House, and scrutiny committees (called “Select” Committees)
which have a permanent membership from one election to the next and which
largely determine their own agenda of investigative inquiries.
Certain other select committees in the are concerned with scrutiny of
delegated legislation, European Union documents, regulatory reform orders or
the compatibility of proposed legislation with the European Convention on Human
Rights.
The Clerk of a legislative “Standing” Committee formally gives advice to
the Chairman nominated to preside over the sittings of that Committee. Clerks in the Public Bill office would have
several such assignments over a year and would work with a number of different
members of the Chairmen’s Panel.
The Clerk of a scrutiny or investigative “Select” Committee leads a
small team of officials in giving procedural, administrative and secretarial
support to the Committee. The Chairman of such a committee would expect to work
closely with the Clerk and the rest of the team, and would be consulted by the
Clerk’s line manager as part of the Clerks’ annual performance review. Clerks in the Committee Office or Delegated
Legislation Office usually lead a Committee team for a few years and would
expect to develop a good working relationship with the Committee Chairman.
All Clerks, including those in the Public Bill Office, Committee Office
and Delegated Legislation Office who are assigned to Committee work, are
accountable to the Clerk of the House as Chief Executive of the House of
Commons Service.
The House of Common Service is developing a more corporate approach and
there are increasing opportunities for staff to move between Departments,
though some skills such as verbatim reporting, electrical engineering or food
preparation tend to be specific to individual Departments. Varying degrees of integration and
co-ordination apply in areas such as staff performance reviews, information
technology support and training.
d) The Parliamentary workload, and consequently the administration's
workload.
Some data give a fuller picture of the actual
workload that the Parliamentary administration is required to perform. We
therefore consider that summary information would be useful on the following:
- the number of
parliamentarians;
659
- the duration of the Parliamentary sessions
in the course of the year normally beginning early November, with breaks
for 2 weeks at end of December/early January (Christmas), 1 week mid-February
(constituency week), 2 weeks March/April (Easter), I week at end of May/early
June (Whitsun), 8 weeks mid-July to mid-September (summer) and 3 weeks from end
of September to mid-October (party conferences). Sitting weeks normally Monday to Thursday,
with 10 Fridays for conduct of non-Government Bills.
the number of sittings,
about 160
and the number of hours the house sits per
year in the present Parliament; about 1500
- the number of formal votes/divisions (which
require a quorum); approx 360
- the number of bills examined by the House in
one year; about 150 Bills presented or brought from the House of Lords,
including about 40 Government Bills all of which normally receive Royal Assent;
the remainder are Private Members’ Bills of which about 5 receive Royal Assent,
about 15 do not complete their passage during the session, about 50 are not
debated at all and a further 40 are never even printed.
- the main activities
performed by the Standing Committees and the average number of sittings of each
Committee during the present Parliament;
Legislative (“Standing”) Committees
on Bills 1999-2000: 39 Bills, 353 sittings
Legislative (“Standing”) Committees
on Bills 2000-01: 21 bills, 126 sittings
Legislative (“Standing”) Committees
on Bills 2001-02: 39 Bills, 269 sittings
Investigative/Scrutiny (“Select”)
Committees 1999-2000: 1,174 meetings,
295 Reports
Investigative/Scrutiny (“Select”)
Committees 2000-01: 552 meetings, 201 Reports
Investigative/Scrutiny (“Select”)
Committees 2001-02: 1,321 meetings, 336 Reports
- the degree of formality of
Standing Committee procedures and whether the Speaker of the House controls the
regularity of the procedures adopted by the Committees' Chairs;
Legislative (“Standing”) Committees conduct
formal debates presided over impartially by a senior Members of the House drawn
from the Chairmen’s Panel appointed by the Speaker. The
Clerk of the Standing Committee is responsible for ensuring that the Chair is
advised correctly on all procedural matters.
Investigative/Scrutiny (“Select”) Committees
have considerable autonomy in how to interpret and implement their orders of
reference (typically, to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of
a Government Department and its associated public bodies). Most Select Committees hold public evidence
hearings, but deliberate in private before publishing their Reports. Each Committee elects its own Chairman, who acts as leader of the Committee
as well as presiding over its formal meetings. Committees frequently make
informal visits or hold informal seminars, but public evidence sessions and,
particularly, private deliberative meetings taking decisions on the wording of
draft Reports are conducted formally in accordance with the practices and
procedures of the House of Commons. The
Clerk of the Select Committee is responsible for ensuring that the Chair is
advised correctly on all procedural matters.
The Speaker
does not intervene in the conduct of either Standing or Select Committees.
- the assistance routinely
provided by the Administration to Parliamentary bodies (for example, verbatim
and summary records, secretarial work, advice on procedural matters,
documentation, etc);
Debates in Legislative (“Standing”) Committees are recorded
substantially verbatim by the Department of the Official Report (Hansard) and
published within a couple of days by the Stationery Office as booklets on sale
to the public or available free of charge on the internet.
The Clerk’s Department publishes brief Standing Committee Proceedings,
recording decisions taken on Amendments to Bills, the day following each
meeting also publishes fuller formal Minutes of Proceedings recording
attendance, decisions and votes soon after the final meeting on the Bill.
The Clerk’s
Department prepares complete published list of Amendments, and advises any
Member on the drafting of Amendments and on all procedural matters.
The Library publishes detailed analyses of Bills before the House and a
wide range of Research Papers and Standard Notes, in hard copy and on the
parliamentary Intranet.
The Vote Office in the Clerk’s Department makes available free of charge
to any Members any official publication which might include Explanatory Notes
on Bills, Green and White Papers, Law Commission reports and Government
accounts.
The Clerk’s Department, under the overall direction of the Clerk of the
House, provides a complete procedural, administrative and secretarial service
to Investigative/Scrutiny (“Select”) Committees. This includes drawing up the
Committee’s programme of evidence hearings, arranging for the circulation of
written evidence and the preparation of analytical briefs for the Committee,
and drafting the Chairman’s final Report to detailed amendment and approval by
the Committee, and arranging the Report’s publication.
e) Relations between the Parliamentary administration and the
legislative process
The purpose is to identify the most complex and
demanding tasks performed by the offices to directly support the lawmaking
process, selected from the following:
- providing advice on Parliamentary procedure;
- providing basic
documentation;
- providing supplementary
information to be used to assess the consistency/compliance of draft
legislation with the system of normative competence and drafting rules;
- organising relations with
the Government and other external bodies and authorities, and preparing requests
for information from them;
- providing the information
available on issues connected with draft legislation;
- drafting technical notes on
problems connected with ensuring statutory consistency and constitutionality
(specifying whether these notes are for individual parliamentarians, sponsors
of bills, Standing Committee members, the Speaker of the House, the House
itself, etc...).
The United
Kingdom has no written constitution. The
House of Commons is not subject to the jurisdiction of the courts. The advice given by the Clerk of the House on
which the impartial Speaker bases his rulings is therefore of considerable
significance, although it is always possible for the House by a majority vote
to decided to proceed in a particular case “notwithstanding” its normal
practice or the provisions of its Standing Orders.
In the United Kingdom, the existence of the Government depends on the
continuing support of a majority of Members in the elected House of Commons.
Each annual Session opens with a debate over several days on the “Queen’s
Speech” which concludes with votes which in effect approve the Government’s
legislative programme.
Party discipline is exercised through the “whipping” system and is
usually quite strict. In normal circumstances, the Government can depend on its
majority to support and defend all of its legislative proposals. The vast majority of Amendments made to Bills
in the House of Commons are proposed by the Government itself and are normally
technical improvements, though some may have been developed as a result of
political pressure. Most Government Bills pass into law in substantially the
same form in which they were first published.
Party discipline is weaker in the mostly nominated House of Lords, where
the Government lacks a reliable majority.
The Cabinet
approves the Government’s Legislative Programme and controls access to
Parliamentary Counsel, a small and highly expert team of lawyers who draft
Government Bills. Parliamentary Counsel
ensure that Government Bills are consistent with previous law and the normal
standards of drafting and statutory interpretation.
The Clerk of Legislation in the House of Commons Clerk’s Department
advises Parliamentary Counsel on technical and procedural aspects of Bills,
especially in relation to parliamentary control of taxation and
expenditure. Parliamentary Counsel
usually seek his advice in confidence before Bills are published.
Legislative proposals originate in Government Departments, which usually
conduct public consultation on policy proposals before seeking Cabinet approval
before requesting Parliamentary Counsel to prepare a Bill. Scrutiny (“Select”) Committees may decide to
conduct inquiries into policy proposals at a pre-legislative stage. Increasingly, the Government tries to publish
Bills in draft before their formal introduction into the House of Commons, in
order to enable Select Committees to conduct pre-legislative inquiries.
Sometimes such pre-legislative scrutiny has been conducted by a joint
committee of both Houses specially established for the purpose; for example, on
the Communications Bill, the Corruption Bill and the Civil Contingencies Bill.
Select
committees examining such policy proposals or draft Bills have a small staff
provided by the Clerk’s Department, which will prepare briefs, invite and
analyse written evidence, organise public hearings with interested parties and
draft a Chairman’s Report of r private discussion by the Committee before
publication.
The Government publishes Explanatory Notes on each of its Bills, and may
also have published other documents such as White or Green papers during the
development of the policy. The Vote Office provides Members with any official
publication. The Library publishes a detailed analysis of each Government Bill
soon after it is published. These Library research papers concentrate on policy
analysis and background information such as statistical data, rather than the
technical aspects of drafting.
In general, the legislative passage of a Bill is a political process of
public debate within a set of rules of parliamentary procedure, rather than an
impartial and systematic examination of a Bill’s compliance with pre-existing
rules or standards. One exception is in
relation to Human Rights. The Joint
Committee on Human Rights is appointed by the House of Lords and the House of
Commons to consider matters relating to human rights in the United Kingdom. It
comprises six Members from each House of Parliament and has decided to examine
every Bill presented to Parliament, to advise the House of the compatibility of
Bills with the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates the European
Convention on Human Rights in to British domestic law. With each Government Bill its starting point
is the statement made by the Minister under section 19 of the Human Rights Act
1998 in respect of the Bill’s compliance with Convention rights as defined in
that Act. The Joint Committee also has regard to the provisions of other
international human rights instruments which bind the UK. Another partial exception
is to be found in the House of Lords Committee on Delegated Powers and
Regulatory Reform, which comments on proposals in Bills giving Ministers power
to make orders and regulations by statutory instrument.
The legislative process is constrained by the practice and procedures of
the House, much of which is set out in Standing Orders. The Clerk’s Department is responsible for
ensuring the timely and accurate publication of the Bill and any proposed Amendments at every stage of a Bill’s
progress. The Clerks in the Public Bill
Office advise any Member, including Opposition spokesmen, on aspects of
parliamentary procedure relating to a bill and an the drafting of
Amendments. The Clerks advise Chairmen
on the grouping and selection of Amendments for debate and on the conduct of
Standing Committee meetings or plenary sittings during the passage of a
Bill. The Clerks’ advice is limited to
technical, practical or procedural matters; they do not seek to influence Members
opinions on the merits of any legislative proposal.
The Public Bill Office inn the Clerk’s Department provides substantial
drafting assistance and procedural advice for Private Members who sponsor
non-Government Bills; there is a very limited amount of time for debating Private
Members’ Bills and only a few of these proposals are passed in any year.
Library Research Papers and Select Committee Reports are published;
advice on aspects of parliamentary procedure is normally given privately to
individual Members.
f) Latest changes in Parliamentary administration
Lastly, we wish to identify the most important
changes made in each Parliamentary Administration, and how far Parliamentary
administrations have adjusted to institutional changes.
By way of example, the ongoing changes
hereinafter might be taken into account :
- at the institutional level:
the ongoing process of European integration; increasing decentralisation and
devolution of powers; heightened role of the Executives;
-
at the level of communication:
computerisation and Internet use; openness and outreach to the general public;
promoting conferences and cultural events; enhancing relations with other
institutions and organisations;
-
at administrative level: the
implementation of new regulations concerning protection of privacy, safety,
contracts etc
- at the scientific and
technological level: new highly scientific political issues (biotechnologies,
environment, public health) and the resultant relations with the scientific
world and technological experts; the development of new technologies (for
example EPTA);
- at
the administrative level: the need to keep domestic legislation adjusted in
line with legislative developments, mainly within the EU, on competition,
health and safety in the workplace, privacy, etc.. It would be particularly
interesting to see whether the reception of such legislation and regulations
has created specific problems or encountered constraints due to the particular
features of individual parliaments;
- security
issues following 11 September 2001;
- new training requirements
for Parliamentary staff connected with the aforementioned changes.
The outline
strategic plan for the House of Commons administration 2001-2006, adopted by
the House of Commons Commission on 29 October 2001, is as follows:
“Purpose
The House
of Commons Service supports, informs and records the work of the House of
Commons as an elected parliamentary chamber in accordance with the decisions of
the House and its Commission. Whenever feasible It makes its work and information
about that work accessible to the general public, while maintaining the
heritage of parliamentary buildings and documents in trust for the public and
future generations. It also contributes to parliamentary democracy by sharing
its knowledge with parliaments and assemblies worldwide.
Values
The House
of Commons Service seeks to achieve high ethical standards, value for money and
professional excellence in all that it does. As an employer, the House of
Commons Commission recognises and values the diversity of its staff and is
committed to fairness and best practice.
Core tasks and
objectives
The House
of Commons Service has four permanent core tasks:
• Supporting the House and its
committees
• Supporting individual Members (and
their staff)
• Providing information and access to
the public
• Maintaining the heritage of
buildings, objects and documents.
While these
tasks are permanent, the specific needs of the House and its Members are
constantly evolving. The technological, environmental, social and
constitutional contexts in which the House works are also changing. The House
of Commons Commission has recognised that a more strategic approach to resource
planning and priorities is needed.
It has
therefore adopted a strategic plan with objectives for the period 2001-2006
that recognise the need to develop, adapt and improve. In particular it seeks:
• to provide services that meet the
changing needs of the House and its Members as efficiently and effectively as
possible; and to develop mechanisms to ensure that this happens
• to manage the parliamentary estate in
such a way as to provide Members, their staff and staff of the House with a
safe, secure, modern and efficient working environment, within the constraints
imposed by the availability of resources and the nature of the estate
• to ensure that House of Commons
processes of corporate management comply with the highest standards of public
sector governance
• to achieve demonstrable value for
money in every aspect of the House service
• to be demonstrably committed to
employment best practice and diversity, providing the House with a motivated
and committed workforce which has the specialist skills to meet its current and
changing needs
• to improve public understanding and
knowledge of the work of the House and to increase its accessibility, subject
to the requirements of security
• to support the business processes of
the House at all levels by developing and maintaining an information
infrastructure that is unified, consistent, seamless, and easily accessed by,
and appropriate to the needs of, the various user communities
• to identify areas where service
levels might be improved by the option of electronic delivery and, where
appropriate, produce costed proposals.”
The
extracts below are taken from the House of Commons Commission’s most recent
Annual Report:
“There is a strong tradition of responding flexibly to the needs of the
House and its Members, and plans set over a five year period may have to be
modified for this reason.
The Board of Management will take any further actions that are needed to
ensure that services continue to match changing needs (objective 1). It will
also continue to seek demonstrable value for money in every aspect of the House
service (objective 4).
Considerable progress has been made in recent years
in improving the parliamentary estate (objective 2) to provide Members,
their staff and staff of the House with a safe, modern and efficient working
environment. Major developments have included the construction and opening of
Portcullis House, the refurbishment of catering facilities in the Palace, the
opening of the Jubilee Café and the refurbishment of the Norman Shaw South
block. There have also been significant enhancements to the security of the Estate
to meet changing risk assessments.
There have been significant changes to the system of corporate
management (objective 3) of House of Commons services in recent years,
including the introduction of more systematic business and human resource planning;
the creation of the post of Chief Executive, supported by the Office of the
Clerk; application in stages of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; creation
of the Audit Committee; creation of a central procurement office; and creation
of the Parliament-wide Information Systems Programme Board. The combined effect
will be to make the administration work more as a single, coherent team dealing
with a diverse range of functions.
There is a growing recognition within the House
service that change needs to be managed in order to secure benefits and avoid
undue risks. Examples of a broader and more planned approach to change
management include the Parliamentary Communications Directorate change
programme, the Library change project and the Business Development Programme in
the Department of Finance and Administration.
The overall profile of the House's workforce must
also change to meet the changing demands of parliamentary work and changing
expectations of society (objective 5). For example, the House is likely to need
more people with an understanding of web-enabled electronic services. Management
skills must also be developed significantly, to keep pace with
organisational need. The Commission and the Board of Management are also
strongly committed to developing the workforce at all levels so that it comes
to reflect more closely the diversity of the United Kingdom.
Improving public understanding and access (objective 6) has been a major priority for the House of Commons over
the last few years. For example, a fundamental redesign of the Parliament
website was implemented in 2002. Three of the five principles identified by the
House of Commons Information Committee in 2002 were concerned with the
potential of ICT to forge new connections between Parliament and the public:
"To increase accessibility and enable the public… to communicate
with Members and with committees of the House"
"To increase public participation in its work"
"To enable, as far as possible, the public to have access to its
proceedings and papers"
Both Houses of Parliament now rely on information
systems and computer technology (objectives 7 and 8) n order to discharge
their responsibilities to Members and the public. The ultimate aim is to exploit information
systems and technology so as to give parliamentary and public users ready
access to a wide range of parliamentary information, when they want it and
without having to know where it is held.”
At the institutional level, the House of Commons has established a National Parliament Office in
Brussels, and the European Scrutiny Committee has continued to take part in
COSAC. House of Commons Members played a
leading role in the Convention on the future of Europe and a new Standing
Committee was instituted to provide for the Parliamentary representatives to
the Convention to be accountable to Members of both Houses.
Since 1997 the Scottish Parliament, the National
Assembly for Wales, the Greater London Authority and a new Northern Ireland
Assembly have been established, though the latter body is currently
suspended. An Act has been passed
recently to provide for referendums on regional assemblies in England.
At the level of communication, Parliament has developed its website and is now open to paying
members of the public during the summer months.
At administrative level, the new Freedom of Information legislation is
in the process of being implemented.
At the scientific and technological level, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology provides Members
of Parliament with expert analyses of new highly scientific political issues
including biotechnologies and the environment.
At the legislative level, the need to
keep domestic legislation adjusted in line with legislative developments,
mainly within the EU, on competition, health and safety in the workplace,
privacy, etc. falls primarily to the Government. The Government is the
initiator of nearly all the Bills which pass through Parliament and the Cabinet
decides the priorities within the Government’s legislative programme.
Following
New training requirements for Parliamentary staff connected with
the aforementioned changes include management skills, such as project
management, and keeping up with developments in information technology.
By way of conclusion, the final question is how can parliamentary
administrations better cooperate to respond to the on going challenges and to
their most complex duties, without wasting their resources and avoiding
duplication?
Parliamentary administrations should seek to make
full use of existing structures and organisations – for example, COSAC, ECPRD.
Parliamentary administrations should co-operate to
make better use of the Internet to share documentation – see the IPEX project.
More national parliaments should establish small
permanent National Parliament Offices within the premises of the European
Parliament in
*Please note that any views expressed above are those of the author and
do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the House of Commons, the House of
Commons Commission, the Board of Management or the Clerk of the House of Commons.