Author: W4MP Editor

Upgrade to Office 2013 Now Available

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Upgrade your computer to Office 2013

Following a successful pilot with Members of the Administration Committee, all Commons Members and their staff will shortly be able to upgrade their computers to Office 2013. This is an upgraded version of your familiar office tools and some new ones. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and OneNote.

The move to Office 2013 is part of a series of steps to give you more mobility and choice in the way you use ICT services. The next step will be to migrate your mailbox to Office 365, making it quicker, easier and more convenient for you to access your Parliamentary information.

Choose when to upgrade

From Thu 08 May, this shortcut  will appear on your PICT-issued computer desktop.

office

You will be able to choose a convenient time to initiate the installation process, which usually takes between 30 minutes and 1 hour. During this time you will not be able to use your machine.

Help and Support

PICT will send you guidance, including factsheets. Briefing sessions are available on request for Member and Members staff and there is more information on the Parliamentary intranet.

Office ‘Energy Makeover’ workshop for staff and members

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An interactive office energy efficiency workshop will be held on Friday the 16th of May, at the Attlee Suite of Portcullis House, from 12 to 1 pm. It will be open to all staff and members from both houses.

It will involve:

  • Joining the Environment Team to find out how you can set the standard for energy efficiency in your office.
  • Hearing about progress towards achieving Parliament’s Energy Commitment, and how to get involved.
  • Over 700 energy-saving ideas received – how to shape these into action.

Contact: Abigail Green at x8452

For more information on energy efficiency in the workplace, see here.

Hansard Society’s ‘Audit of Political Engagement 11’ published.

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The 2014 Hansard Society annual Audit of Political Engagement 11, published April 30, shows the level of public concern with the culture and conduct of politics and politicians. This year’s audit looks at public concerns over the conduct of MPs, public attitudes to and perceptions of the culture and processes of Westminster, and concerns over how relatable or distant politicians feel to them.

  • 67% say ‘politicians ‘don’t understand the daily lives of people like me’
  • 45% agree that ‘most politicians go into politics because they want to make a positive difference in their community’
  • 74% believe ‘politicians should be prepared to make personal sacrifices if they want to play a role in running the country’
  • Just 21% agree that ‘politicians are behaving in a more professional way than they were a few years ago’
  • 86% agree that politicians ‘should be expected to act according to a set of guidelines about their behaviour’
  • 77% agree that politicians ‘should have to undertake regular ethics and standards training’
  • However, 62% agree that ‘politicians in the past were no better than today; they just didn’t face the same media scrutiny’

It looks at how the public feel about their potential to have an influence locally or more widely. It finds that few people feel their getting involved in politics could make a difference, and that parliament does little to encourage more active public involvement.

  • Just 31% think that if people like themselves get involved in politics ‘they really can change the way that the UK is run’
  • Just 23% agree that Parliament ‘encourages public involvement in politics’
  • While 43% want to be involved in local decision-making, only 26% feel they have at least some influence locally
  • While 38% want to be involved in national decision-making, only 14% feel they have at least some influence nationally

It also looks at public attitudes to and understanding of European elections, and finds that most people feel they know less about European elections and the European Parliament than national equivalents.

  • 77% agree that ‘I know less about the issues in a European Parliament election than a general election’
  • 71% agree that they ‘understand more about how general elections work than elections to the European Parliament’
  • 61% believe their general election vote is simply ‘more important’ than their European one

 

You can read Audit 11 here.

Conservative Party Code of Conduct for staff.

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Following reports in the news of ‘concerns over the working culture in Westminster‘, The Conservative Party has issued a basic voluntary Code of Conduct, describing how staff should be treated by MPs and vice versa.

The code has not been officially published but was covered in depth by Channel 4 News after a copy was leaked to them – you can read the report, which includes a link to the text, here.

A letter sent by Sir George Young to Conservative MPs along with the Code makes the point that MPs employ staff directly and that relationship is “something which neither the House nor the Party has any legal locus upon”.

Using Google Alerts

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‘Google Alerts‘ are a simple way to monitor the Internet for subjects in which you have a particular interest. For example, you might like to know whenever your MP’s name appears online, or a certain topic arises in conjunction with their name.

Google Alerts lets you set up a search which will then email you whenever your chosen search terms appear online. You can choose to be emailed as-it-happens, once a day or once a week.

You may need to tweek your search terms at first, particularly if you search on a common name, for example ‘John Smith’, by adding the constituency name, or telling it not to return results containing particular trigger words. So for example, your initial search could be:

“John Smith” parliament

but if there’s an MP called John Smith, say in Australia, you could then amend the search to read

“John Smith” parliament -Australia

and so on.

You can set up as many alerts as you like, and can customise them by choosing in which languages it searches and where in the world you want the results to come from.

Have a look at the Google Alerts page for more information: http://www.google.co.uk/alerts

Need the best research briefings?

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Research briefings (Standard Notes, Research Papers, POST Notes, etc) can be found on the intranet. This is a massive resource and it is constantly updated.

For those without access to the parliamentary intranet, many of these are also available on the public Parliament website here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/.

The advantage of using the intranet link is that it lists the subject specialists in case you need to consult them for further information.