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.
The House of Commons Library website contains a wealth of information which is of use not only to Members of Parliament and their staff, but are also accessible by members of the public.
The House of Commons Members’ HR Service has produced a Best Practice Guide to Recruitment and Selection.
It provides practical advice on efficient and effective recruitment practices. The guide aims to support Members (and their Office Managers) with the tools to attract and recruit people with diverse backgrounds, skills and abilities.
Even if you’re not currently recruiting, w4mp recommends that MPs and Office Manager take the time to read this very useful document.
The Members’ HR Advice Service advises Members on all matters related to their employment of staff. They aim to promote good employment practice and deliver a personal and tailored service to MPs by providing them with high quality advice and documentation.
Whilst the Members’ HR Advice Service can only give guidance to Members of Parliament themselves or, if authorised, their office managers, the Members’ HR Advice Service intranet pages contain lots of useful information and links to forms and guides and in particular the Best Practice Guides
They offer a wide range of services, which include:
Confidential advice to individual Members on all employee relations such as disciplinary and grievances, sickness absence management, poor performance, capability processes and office reorganisation.
Formal guidance to Members on contractual terms and conditions including maternity and paternity rights, working time regulations, probationary period, recruitment and flexible working.
Promoting best practice application of employment law and policies and procedures.
A range of tailored template and bespoke documentations to assist members in managing their HR issues.
The team can support Members at HR meetings held on the parliamentary estate or by telephone if the meetings are held off the parliamentary estate.
Members may authorise their office managers to handle HR and staffing issues with HR Advice Services.
The Wellness Working Group is a cross party group of MPs’ staff with the aim of placing a focus on staff welfare and improving support for MPs’ staff well-being.
Supporting one another makes a huge difference, so if you would like to learn more about the group, or to join, please see their page here: Wellness Working Group
The NHS in England is made up of, and supported by, a number of different kinds of organisations at local and national level. They have produced a very useful guide to who does what and how NHS services are funded, delivered and regulated for your constituents.
If you are an MP or a member of an MP’s staff and would like a copy of the guide, please let us know by emailing [email protected]
Please note that this guide is not available to members of the public.
The Department for Health & Social Care has produced a new guide for ministerial correspondence. If you would like a copy, please email [email protected]
Please note that this is only available to the offices of Members of Parliament, Members of the Scottish Parliament, Assembly Members and Members of the European Parliament.
w4mp is not able to investigate complaints about MPs or the House of Commons. Please do not send complaints or personal information to w4mp, as we will not be able to assist.
There are two organisations which deal with complaints about Members of Parliament:
The use of parliamentary facilities, advocacy or lobbying where the MP has a financial interest.
The Commissioner will not investigate complaints about:
policy matters;
an MP’s views or opinions;
an MP’s handling of or decision about constituency cases and correspondence at any stage; (A local MP will generally do as much as they can to help a constituent, but (s)he is not obliged to take up every matter that is brought to their attention);
the conduct of an MP’s wider public life, unless the MP’s conduct has caused serious damage to the reputation of the House of Commons as a whole or of MPs more generally.
The post of Compliance Officer for IPSA was established by the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009, as amended by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
The Compliance Officer’s remit is defined in statute and is to:
conduct an investigation if he has reason to believe that an MP may have been paid an amount under the MPs’ Scheme of Business Costs (the Scheme) that should not have been allowed; and
at the request of an MP, review a determination by IPSA to refuse reimbursement for an expense claim, in whole or in part.
As the Compliance Officer’s role is confined to matters pertaining to the Scheme, he has no power to investigate complaints that pre-date the creation of IPSA in May 2010. Complaints regarding expense claims prior to May 2010 are usually handled by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
This is an automatically generated list of all w4mp Guides for the last five years. Please note that the information and guidance in them may be out of date – they are left as an archive. We have made every effort to keep the old sites accessible, because that makes the Web stronger.
This note is provided by Working for an MP (w4mp).
Most of the material in Guides is subject to Crown copyright protection. Unless otherwise indicated material may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without specific permission. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not being used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context. For more details see our Copyright page
Here you will find a collection of guides to good practice that will offer you advice in carrying out the main activities expected of you in your job. They are constantly being revised and updated so if you do print a guide out please remember to check back from time to time.
We also include links to resources that will be of use to staff. Some of these are on the Parliamentary Intranet and can only be accessed if you have an appropriate login.
Setting up Your Office
Between June 2023 to June 2024 a cross-party group of civic technologists worked together to create the MP Office Manual. They are all keen to see MPs with well run offices contributing to a flourishing democracy in the UK.
You can read it at mpofficemanual.uk. Please note that this is hosted on Google Docs and is an external site, not affiliated with w4mp. Please be careful to check any links etc. from the site as they will be to third party sites.
The proposals in the manual come from in-depth interviews with current and former MPs office staff, and expert advice f
W4MP has been in operation since 2000 and we have published hundred of guides in that time. Many of these have been superseded and removed from our main site, but they can be consulted on our archive site. These are for research purposes and should not be relied upon as a guide to current practice.
