Death In Service

The House funds and administers a Death in Service Scheme for Members’ staff. All staff employed by MPs permanently or on fixed term contracts longer than 3 months, who are aged between 16 and 75, are automatically covered. The scheme provides a lump sum payment if you were to die whilst still employed.

To nominate a recipient(s) of this lump sum, please complete an EOW form Portcullis Death in Service Scheme.docx. Please submit your completed form via email to [email protected]

You may update your nominees at any time by submitting a new form . A new form is needed if your employing MP changes as any previous version will be deleted as it will no longer be valid.

For further information, please see this page on the intranet: https://parlinet.parliament.uk/working-here/members-hr-advice-service/members-staff-death-in-service/

Nominating constituents for honours or awards

Members of Parliament are often asked for assistance in nominating constituents for honours or awards. The honours system is a way of recognising people’s achievements or efforts in serving their communities or the country.

The House of Commons Library has a document which goes into more detail about the honours system and how to apply: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/honours/

To nominate someone for an honour or award, please visit this website: https://www.gov.uk/honours

There’s also a very useful page here, giving tips on how to write a nomination:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/honours-how-to-write-citations/how-to-write-a-nomination-html

The Right to Remain Toolkit

The Right to Remain Toolkit is a step-by-step guide to the UK immigration and asylum system. It’s free to use, and it’s for people who want to learn more about the legal process, or a particular part of the legal process. It’s written in simple terms by legal experts and by people who have lived experience of the system, and it is available in many languages.

It’s aimed at people who are currently navigating the UK immigration and asylum system as well as those who are helping them to do so.

To read more about this fabulous resource and to access the Toolkit, please see the Right to Remain website by clicking the link below.

Right to Remain Toolkit

The Open University Westminster Showcase

Invitation for Parliamentary Staff

The Open University Westminster Showcase

Thursday 14 November, 1.15-3pm (drop in at any time)
Attlee Suite, Portcullis House

Dear all,

We would like to invite you to The Open University Westminster Showcase, an event dedicated to Parliamentary staff members. The event will be held on Thursday 14th November, 1.15-3pm in the Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, Westminster. Refreshments will be available.

The event is an opportunity to find out how The Open University (OU) can support you in your day-to-day work in Parliament and in the constituency, the free resources you can share with constituents and local businesses as well as the free learning and development opportunities available.

On the day you can:

Learn about the free OU research and insights available to use when you’re writing briefing notes, policy documents or speeches.
Explore our free learning and development opportunities available to you and constituents.
Hear about the free OU insights local businesses and public services can access to support them with skills development and workforce planning.
Have a go at an online experiment via our Queen’s Anniversary award winning OpenSTEM Labs which enables OU students to access scientific equipment wherever in the world they are studying.
Network and meet colleagues from across parliament and the research and think-tank sectors.
Discover what Mars smells like…

The OU plays a significant role in local communities across the UK, with OU students based in every local area – including in the constituency you support.

Please RSVP and let us know if on the day you would like to collect a copy of your Constituency Profile, which includes useful facts and stats on the number of OU students in your constituency and their demographics.

All parliamentary staff members are welcome so please do share this invitation with anyone you think might like to attend.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Civil Service Football Club

The Civil Service Football Club (CSFC) are recruiting players for the 2024/25 season from across Government. CSFC run eleven teams competing in games across London, with our home ground being in Chiswick. This includes eight eleven-a-side men’s teams, two women’s teams and one veteran’s team (40+).

For men training runs every Wednesday at 7pm, for women training is every Thursday evening. Training is held on fantastic facilities at our home ground the Kings House School Sports Ground, London W4 2SH, a 20-minute train ride from Waterloo or Vauxhall to Barnes Bridge.

The club caters for a full spectrum of footballing abilities, ranging from near semi-professional standard in the first team to more socially orientated football in the lower teams. With eleven teams it’s a great way to make friends both within the team you play in and across the club.

The 2023/24 season was a successful season for the club, winning two league titles with other sides being runners up in leagues and Cups. There was a great end of season dinner with 120 players and a very successful tour to Bilbao in Spain including playing a game at Athletic Bilbao’s training ground and attending a La Liga game.

Increased physical activity has been identified as a priority area for Civil Service health and well-being initiatives. Playing competitive 11-a-side football is a great way to exercise, it’s also a great way to socialise and meet people from across the civil service and beyond.

The Civil Service Football Club is one of the most important clubs in football’s history. Recognised as the oldest association football club in the world CSFC were one of the dozen founding sides (most of the others are now defunct or play rugby union) of the Football Association on 28 October 1863, and were also one of the 15 entrants to the first ever FA Cup competition in 1871-72, last season they hosted the FA Cup second round draw. In 2013 they played in the only ever game played inside the grounds of Buckingham Palace

For more information, please email [email protected]

If you are interested in joining our women’s team please email [email protected].

Three Bridges Race

The Three Bridges Race has been going since July 1977 and takes place once a month at 12:30 pm on a Wednesday.

The course is 2.3 miles long, beginning at Westminster Bridge in front of St. Thomas’s Hospital, and takes in Lambeth and Vauxhall Bridges, with no roads to cross.

For further information about the race and how to register, please visit the website: https://www.threebridgesrace.uk/

Women’s Parliamentary Football Team

The Women’s Parliamentary Football Team trains on Wednesday mornings from 0800 to 0900 and they have 5-a-side matches on Mondays for 30 mins in a league.

The football team is a great group to have fun, make friends and get some exercise before / after work! We’ve had amazing events too, such as hosting the Women’s Afghan Refugee Football Team, training at Tottenham Hotspurs stadium and a match against Camden FC.

If you’re interested in joining, please email [email protected] with your phone number & the name of who you work for.

Why isn’t there a by-election when an MP defects from one political party to another?

The following information was prepared by the Commons Library – to whom thanks.

There are no rules requiring the resignation of an MP who leaves one political party for another. A convention that the Member changing parties does not resign to fight a by-election accords with the arguments of Edmund Burke in the late 18th century. This MP, himself a rebel in a number of policy areas, considered that a Member was a representative rather than a delegate. Historically, the Commons has acted on the principle that all Members of the House of Commons are individually elected, and voters put a “cross against the name of a candidate”. While decisions on candidates may be affected by their party labels, MPs are free to develop their own arguments once elected, until it is time to face the voters in the next general election.

Are there any sanctions or other forms of discouragement which could be imposed on an MP for leaving the party on whose behalf she/he was elected?

There are no formal sanctions but discouragement comes in many forms, including: reaction of former party colleagues and the electorate. Although Members who change party allegiance during the course of a Parliament, rarely stand for their new party in the same constituency at the following election, crossing the floor does not mean political death. There are examples of Members being found safe seats by their new party and even taking their place on the front bench.

Is there any pressure to take action against Members who defect?

Occasionally there are calls for Members to resign or for by-elections to be triggered if they change parties. For example, in 2010, it was suggested that “Members should be required to cause a by-election if they defect to a different party from the one on whose manifesto they were elected”. However, the Government said that such a change would be “a major constitutional reform of the role of Members of Parliament and their independence” and that it had “no plans to do that”.

Who has crossed the floor?

True instances of crossing the floor – leaving the Government for the Opposition or vice versa – are rare. In the last 15 years, just three MPs have moved from the Official Opposition to the governing Party, none have gone in the opposite direction.

Quentin Davies crossed the floor from the opposition Conservative Party to the governing Labour Party in June 2007. He was given a peerage in 2010.
Robert Jackson, left the Conservative Party for the Labour Party, in January 2005. He left Parliament at the next election, in May 2005.
Shaun Woodward, who was elected as a Conservative Member in Witney in 1997, crossed the floor in December 1999. At the general election in 2001, he was elected as a Labour Member in St Helens South. He went on to serve as Northern Ireland Secretary from 2007-10 in the Labour Cabinet.

Previous examples include Winston Churchill and Reg Prentice who both held ministerial office in two different parties. Churchill left the Conservative Party in May 1904, joining the Liberal Party and becoming a minister in 1905. He was a defeated Liberal candidate in the 1922 and 1923 general elections, and as an independent in a 1924 by-election. In the 1924 general election he was elected as a Constitutionalist and became Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Conservative Government following that election. Reg Prentice was Labour’s Secretary of State for Education in 1974-75 but following deselection by his constituency party, he left for the Conservative Party in 1977. From 1979-81, he was a Minister of State of in Margaret Thatcher’s first Conservative Government.

The Library has produced a Note – Members’ Changes of Allegiance. It details moves by Members from one party directly to another and instances of Members losing or resigning a party whip.

ParliNet – useful bookmarks

ParliNet users will have noticed that there is no longer an A-Z index on the site, and so w4mp is going to list some of the more common pages here. Some of the links take you to the public Parliament website as these pages are no longer on the intranet.

Please note that some of these may be subject to change as pages are moved around ParliNet. We will do our best to keep up with them, but please do let us know if you spot any broken links by emailing us at [email protected]

All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs)

Annunciator Online (Parliament Now) – choose which House you wish to view, and then click the button at the bottom right of the screen

Calendar/What’s on in Parliament

Caseworker Hub (part of MST) – includes hotlines and useful booklets

Digital Service

Dods People

Facilities (Westminster estate only)

Find Your MP

Grantfinder

Guide to Procedure

House of Commons Library (public site, where the casework guides are kept)

House of Commons ParliNet Site

House of Commons Library – Specialist Researcher Directory

House of Commons Online Resources (databases, etc.)

Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS)

Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) public website

Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) Unit 4 ERP

Job vacan cies at Parliament

MemberHub

Members’ HR Advice

Members’ HR Best Practice Guides

Members’ Security Support Service

Members’ Services Team

Nexis News Database

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards

ParliNet homepage

Registers of Interest

Registers of Interest – MP registration forms

Restaurants, cafes and bars (access and menus)

Security Vetting Portal

Speaker’s Office

Table Office

Tours

Training for Members’ Staff

Interpreters and Translation Services

Members of Parliament serve constituents who speak many different languages and whilst some people may bring a friend with them, or you may have some local community groups who may be able to help, sometimes it is necessary to engage the services of an interpreter or a translation service.

The House of Commons does not provide interpretation and translation services, but the cost of engaging such services can be covered by IPSA under ‘translation services. ‘

The services below are ones which have been suggested by MPs’ staff. You could also search for translators and interpreters local to you on yell.com

The Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office can help you to find an interpreter abroad. See this website: Find a translator or interpreter abroad

Please note that reference to a site or service here should not imply an endorsement and we cannot be responsible for anything on third party sites.

These organisations can help you to find an interpreter near you:

Chartered Institute of Linguists
https://www.ciol.org.uk/find-a-linguist

Institute of Translation and Interpreting
https://www.iti.org.uk/find-professional-translator-interpreter/find-a-language-service-provider.html

British Sign Language

National Register of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind People
https://www.nrcpd.org.uk/

Action Deafness
https://actiondeafness.org.uk/services/interpreting/

AI Live – provides real-time speech-to-text captioning on Internet-connected devices
https://www.ai-live.com/

Deaf Action
https://deafaction.org/services/communication-interpreting-agency/bsl-english-interpreters/

Royal National Institute for Deaf People
https://rnid.org.uk/information-and-support/support-for-businesses-and-organisations/communicating-staff-customers-deaf-hearing-loss/british-sign-language-bsl-interpreters/

Silent Sounds
https://silent-sounds.co.uk/

Signalise
https://signalise.coop

Live Services

LanguageLine
https://www.languageline.com/en-gb/

LanguageLine offers live interpreting services in over 240 spoken languages, face-to-face, online, via telephone or via a mobile app. They also provide interpreters for British Sign Language (BSL), either face-to-face or online via video.

LanguageLine also offers translation services such as document translation and website translation in over 190 languages.

Clear Voice
https://clearvoice.org.uk
Clear Voice is a social enterprise which returns 100% of its profits to Migrant Help to help to support refugees, asylum seekers, survivors of modern slavery and victims of human trafficking. Their interpreters have a lot of experience when working with migrants and refugees. They also deliver an innovative education programme called the InPower Project which fully funds unemployed refugees through the education they need to become professional interpreters.

Interpreting Line
https://www.interpretingline.co.uk/home

Interpreting line offers face-to-face, video and telephone translation services for over 250 spoken languages and also British Sign Language (BSL.) They also offer document translation services.

Dialogue Language Services UK
https://dialogueuk.com/

Give Me Your Word
https://www.givemeyourword.co.uk/

Internet/Mobile Apps

Important!

Internet/mobile apps can be useful for quick translations where you need the gist of something quickly, rather than a definitive translation. Online and AI tools do not understand nuance, satire, irony or humour and so cannot match the skills of a human translator, and will not be as accurate. Whenever you need to translate something to be used in a professional or legal context, or something sensitive, you should consider employing the services of a professional interpreter or translator.

There may also be privacy issues using translation apps, as some may require access to personal data. They are not designed to be used for long or complex documents.

Apple Translate

If you have Apple device, you could use the Translate app and Siri, but it has only a small number of languages it can translate – Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.

Activate Siri, and say the word of phrase you wish to translate and the language you want it to be translated into. It will respond with written text and also say the phrase out loud.

Google Translate

Google Translate is s an online text translator: https://translate.google.co.uk/ and there is also a mobile app. It has more than 200 languages available. Select the languages you wish to translate and then either type in the text, or press the microphone button and speak the words or phrases you wish to translate. Google Translate has a photo mode, where you use the phone’s camera to hover over written text and it will provide a translation in one of 37 languages (number correct at at 27 August 2024). It also has a ‘conversation mode’ for some languages.

ChatGPT
https://chatgpt.com/

For information on how to use ChatGPT for translation, please see here: https://www.upwork.com/en-gb/resources/chatgpt-for-translation

Microsoft Translator
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/translator/