News
Please note that the email addresses used to contact the Home Office for immigration matters have been changed.
Please check the Hotlines List for the new addresses.
There is a new document giving an overview of the MP Account Management Services. Please do take a few minutes to read it, as it could save you a lot of time when submitting queries to the Home Office. You can find it here: https://hopuk.sharepoint.com/sites/hct-mstinfo/SitePages/Caseworker-Hub.aspx
Are you OK? How are you coping? Do you need to talk to someone?
An MP’s office can be a busy and stressful environment at the best of times, and over the past few weeks, staff have been under a lot of extra pressure.
The work we do can put a strain on our mental health and wellbeing, and we can often feel isolated. If you are finding it difficult to cope, or just need someone to talk to, or somewhere to offload, please remember that help is available.
The Wellness Working Group offers lots of useful information advice and you can access their hub here: https://hopuk.sharepoint.com/sites/hct-wellbeinghub
Please ring the helpline and talk to someone. It’s what it’s there for.
Health Assured provides an independent support service to MPs’ staff, it is completely confidential and can be accessed 24/7 by phone, online portal and app. You can access support for any issue you are struggling with, it doesn’t have to be work related. Look here for further information, their helpline number and a link to access the service: https://hopuk.sharepoint.com/sites/hct-wellbeinghub/SitePages/What-suport-is-there-.aspx
Do you want to know all about the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement 2023?
The House of Commons Library has lots of information which you can find here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/autumn-statement-2023/
Including:
Mark D’Arcy and Ruth Fox present a weekly podcast about how Parliament works, and talk about current issues and research, and historical events.
Find the podcast here: https://podfollow.com/parliamentmatters/view
The House of Commons Library’s interactive dashboard can be used to explore data for parliamentary constituencies, covering topics such as unemployment, house prices and election results.
You can see some headline statistics here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-dashboard/
There are more dashboards on other topics which you can look through on this page:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/data-tools-and-resources/local-data/
Please note that the contact details for the Home Office in relation to immigration matters have now changed. Please see the new hotlines list for details.
The Members’ Services Team (MST) are hosting a twin-centre East Midlands Roadshow this November. The events will take place in Nottingham on Wednesday 29 November, 10am – 4pm (Belgrave Rooms, NG1 5LB) and Peterborough on Thursday 30 November, 10am – 4pm (Weston Homes Stadium, PE2 8AL).
The agenda will focus on preparing for the next general election including guidance around the dissolution period and the impact of the boundary change review. Representatives from IPSA and House services will attend to answer questions and talk about the support they will provide during the general election period. Refreshments will be provided throughout the day. A finalised agenda for the event will be circulated closer to the time.
To register to attend the upcoming roadshows, please fill in this form, where you can also see the current agenda.
It’s Parliament Week – see https://www.ukparliamentweek.org/en/ – and lots of activities will be taking place across the country. Parliament Week (UKPW) is an annual event, spreading the word about what Parliament is, what it does and how you can get involved and featured over 10,000 activities last year.
You may have heard from people running events with invitations for local MPs to attend.
Time: 10:30 – 11:30
Date: Thursday 16 November 2023
Location: Online via MS Teams
With Sally Lipscombe from the Library’s Home Affairs Section and Hannah Cromarty from the Social Policy Section.
To book and view other Caseworker Discussion Q&A sessions, please visit ACT: https://parliament.learningpool.com/mod/facetoface/view.php?id=5177
Dissolution is the official term for the end of a Parliament before a general election. When Parliament is dissolved every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant. MPs immediately revert to being members of the general public and those who wish to become MPs again must stand for election as candidates.
The House has now published its revised dissolution guidance, which aims to help Members and Members’ staff understand the rules in place and the support available to them before, during and after the next election, including what to expect during the dissolution period.
You can find the guidance on the new parliamentary intranet, ParliNet, and we have published our own page on w4mp to track the guidance.
Please note that the guides etc may be updated before the election and so you should refer to ParliNet and not any stored web pages or PDFs for the latest guidance.