library

Library Research Briefings

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The House of Commons Library produces excellent research briefings on topics relating to current affairs and matters of interest to MPs and their staff.

Some of the latest briefings include:

  • Objecting to gambling premises
  • NHS key statistics: England
  • Changes to automatic prisoner release dates in England and Wales
  • Financial markets: Economic indicators
  • e-petition: remove sentence reductions for guilty pleas in controlling and coercive cases
  • Inflation international comparisons: Economic indicators
  • Complaining about UK Government departments or public bodies in England
  • Adult social care reform in England
  • Electoral Commission strategy and policy statement
  • Flexible voting pilots
  • Complaining to an ombudsman

You can find all of the briefings here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/type/research-briefing

Casework masterclass – Casework Discussion Forum

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Time: 1400 – 1530
Date: Thursday 24 September 2026
Location: Online via MS Teams

Join us for this extended casework forum session which aims to bring you essential tips, tricks and advice on how to effectively manage casework. With the authors of the Library’s Guide to casework and W4MP’s accompanying Casework guide on hand, we will also have guests from a variety of other useful Parliamentary services available to answer your questions.

This session will give you the change to share your experiences, get advice from fellow caseworkers and learn about other services which might help make the vital work you do a little easier.  

For full details and to reserve your place, please see here

Factiva – online news resource

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Factiva is an online searchable news and alerts service which aggregates content from both licensed and free sources. These include UK national and regional newspapers, foreign newspapers, and UK and international journal titles. As well as setting up your own search terms, you can search within a particular industry, geographical region, or within regional publications.

You could set up an alert to notify you every time your Member is mentioned in the press, or if there are mentions of a particular topic of interest.  Alerts can be delivered immediately or in digest form.

The House of Commons Library runs monthly training which will provide an overview of functionality, including navigation, searching for news on key topics or in key sources, and output options.

Log into Factiva.

To see future training dates, please log into ACT: Factiva online news service

 

Caseworker Discussion Forum: Housing Ombudsman

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Time: 14:00 – 15:00
Date: Wednesday 19 August 2026
Location: Online via Teams
Booking: book via ACT

We’ll be joined by staff from the Housing Ombudsman and Library subject specialists
Online booking closes 90 minutes before the forum meeting. To request a place after online booking has closed please email LibraryTraining@parliament.uk

Constituency data: Deprivation in England

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The House of Commons Library has created an interactive dashboard shows deprivation data for constituencies and small areas in England and you can find it here: Constituency data: Deprivation in England

The Library briefing paper Deprivation in English constituencies, 2025 provides more information and statistics.

Library talk – Local government reorganisation: Vantage point summer 2026

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Time: 10:30 – 11:30
Date: 9 July 2026
Location: Online via Teams
Booking: https://parliament.learningpool.com/mod/facetoface/view.php?id=9728

This talk will analyse the decisions made on local government reorganisation in March 2026, and the implications of any developments since. It will then reiterate the timetable for the implementation of the policy. It will also trace the implications for Government decisions on the remainder of two-tier areas in England.

NEW DATE – London and South East Roadshow 

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The London and South East roadshow has been rescheduled for Thursday 10 September 2026.

You are invited to attend the upcoming roadshow event for London and South East offices. The event will be delivered by the Members and Members’ staff Services Team (MMSST) in the House of Commons. We really hope that you will be able to attend.

If you have already signed up, you will not need to re-register for the new date; MMSST will shortly send you a new calendar invitation.

To register to attend please email mmsst@parliament.uk