To commemorate the beginning of the year following all the indulgent Christmas celebrations, ParliOUT will be hosting an evening social.

Thursday 18 Jan 2018, 17:30 – 19:00

Costa Coffee | The Grand Building, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5EJ

Contact: Nerys Davies, [email protected]

Please RSVP to [email protected]  to let us know if you’d like to attend so we can expect you.

We understand that the idea of coming to an event without knowing anyone can be quite a daunting experience. A pre-meet will happen between 5pm – 5.30pm at Westminster station (between St. Stephen’s Tavern and Tesco Express) for people that would like to meet before the event.

Committee member Nerys Davies will be facilitating this. To contact Nerys regarding the pre-meet, email: [email protected]

Find out more about ParliOUT on the Parliament website.

The life of a bag-carrier or researcher might seem to be entirely dedicated to the task of unlocking the mysteries of Parliament, but now there’s a new way to test your skills –  ‘Unlock Parliament’, a brand new immersive experience at Westminster.

We have heard from the cross-party Working Group currently looking into harassment and bullying in Parliament. The survey they will be conducting is an important way to gather information in confidence about the current situation, and we encourage you to complete it when it is posted.

w4mp team.

In light of the stories of harassment and bullying in parliament, the Prime Minister has convened a cross-party Working Group on an Independent Complaints and Grievance Policy. The group are currently working on a proposal to make Parliament a safe and fair place to work, and the policy will be available to those that work in, or with, Parliament.

As members of the Working Group, we will be asking you to complete a short survey. This will give us a preliminary view of your experiences relating to bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment.

We will only ask for limited demographic information, but we want to hear directly from you so that we can act quickly in implementing a solution. The survey will help us to better understand the current situation, identify the things that the independent policy needs to tackle and hear how people think this might work best. The survey is being sent to a wide range of people who work in and with Parliament, not just those employed by the two Houses or working for Members or Peers.

We have commissioned BMG to conduct the survey for us, who are an independent organisation with survey expertise.  We will circulate the details of the survey link in the next few days, and ask you to complete it online as soon as possible.  We will also distribute information about the survey link in hard copy for people who do not use a computer regularly in the course of their work.

Please note that the deadline for completing the survey is Sunday 3rd December. The initial findings will inform the proposal that the Working Group will be putting together in December.

We would like to make it clear that the survey is anonymous and that BMG only report responses above a certain number. This ensures all information remains completely confidential. BMG Research is a member of the Market Research Society, which is bound by its Code of Conduct not to provide personal details without formal permission of the individual.

The Working Group would like to encourage you to complete the survey – we are aware of a number of surveys that you may also have been asked to complete, but the only survey conducted by the Working Group is the one you will receive from BMG.

It is vital that the Working Group is able to hear from those affected by these important issues, those who work on the estate, and those who care about this issue – we want to make sure we get this right.