News
The prices of Royal Mail postage stamps will rise on 2 October 2023
You can find full details of all price rises here: https://www.royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2023-09/our-prices-october-2023-ta.pdf
Please note that links to the old Parliamentary intranet have been removed as of October 2023. Please use search on ParliNet to find relevant current details, if available.
https://parlinet.parliament.uk/house-of-commons-members-staff/
The Information Compliance Team has updated its guidance on Subject Access Requests for MPs’ offices and you can find it here
You could also have a look at our page on Data Protection here: https://w4mp.org/w4mp/w4mp-guides/your-office/data-protection/
Please note that links to the old Parliamentary intranet have been removed as of October 2023. Please use search on ParliNet to find relevant current details, if available.
https://parlinet.parliament.uk/house-of-commons-members-staff/
It’s 250 years since the first ‘official’ catering venue opened in the House of Commons and to celebrate this and the work of the catering teams in making Parliament happen, they’re celebrating the culinary creativity of the parliamentary community and inviting you to design a pie for Parliament!
The winner will have their pie on the menu in Bellamy’s and be offered the opportunity to serve on the day, wearing their very own 250 anniversary apron.
For details about how to enter, please visit the intranet page here
The Wellness Working Group (WWG) will be publishing a monthly blog, written by Committee Member, Lisa Young, who not only works for an MP but is a trained counsellor. They hope that by publishing this blog, you might find some comfort as well as practical tips to help you through a difficult situation.
You can find the blog on the parliamentary intranet here: https://hopuk.sharepoint.com/sites/hct-wellbeinghub/SitePages/WWG-Blog.aspx
The August 2023 post relates to receiving calls from people who are struggling to cope, and contains a link to a useful template to guide you through such a call.
The Members’ and Members’ Staff Services Team, along with Teams across the House of Commons, provides a wide range of training, learning and development activities that have been developed to support Members’ staff in their different roles and responsibilities.
To see the dates of courses coming up soon, view the Monthly Training Bulletin. You can also find all the training available to Members’ Staff on ACT.
Note: you must have a parliamentary network account and be connected to the network in order to access the above links.
The Financial Conduct Authority is launching a review of the treatment of ‘Politically Exposed Persons’ by financial services companies.
You can read about it on their website here: https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-launches-review-treatment-politically-exposed-persons
Time: 14:00
Date: Thursday 17 August 2023
Location: Online via Teams
Update from the Members’ Services Team, including:
It is nearly one year since the Casework Discussion Forum launched. We would like to use this session to gather your feedback about the Forum, suggestions on how it can be improved, and ideas for what topics you would like to see covered in 2024.
POST, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, sources reliable and impartial scientific research evidence for the UK Parliament.
It’s latest publications are:
Available for MPs’ Offices Only
Guide to Free Legal Services to support constituency casework
The APPG for Access to Justice, which launched last month.
They have been working with a number of law firms to explore the types of legal problems that arise in MPs’ casework and one of the barristers involved, Toby Brown, has put together a comprehensive guidebook of all the law centres and charities across England and Wales which offer legal advice. It covers everything from immigration, domestic abuse, employment, social security, family issues and how to access legal aid.
There are enough hard copies for every MP and it would be an invaluable resource for any constituency office, irrespective of political party.
If you would be interested in obtaining a hard copy please email [email protected] and a copy will be sent to you. A PDF version is also available.
Are you a parliamentary worker who uses evidence-based information as part of your role? A new research project supported by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations is asking what sources of information you use and why. The aim of the work is to understand how evidence could be communicated to policy makers more effectively. Take part in a short online survey and you could win £100 for yourself or for charity. For more information and to take part, go to this link:
https://oxford.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/communicating-evidence-to-policy-makers-what-works-best
The request to post came from Dr Caroline Wood at Oxford University, who has been awarded a grant from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) to investigate which sources of information policy makers most rely on to access current evidence on topical issues.
The aim is that the findings of this will inform a publicly-accessible ‘best practice guide’ for all those whose role involves communicating evidence to policy makers (including thinktanks, research institutions, universities, and NGOs). By understanding which information sources are favoured by policy makers, this will allow organisations with limited resources for policy engagement to focus on the channels that are most likely to be effective.
The core activity of the project is a short online survey which asks policy makers (including policy advisers and research assistants for MPs) which sources of evidence they use and why.
They are looking for as many participants as possible in order to generate enough data to glean some valuable insights and we are happy to bring it to the attention of our readers