Keeping tabs on the UK’s parliaments & assemblies
WhoFundsThem Update: December
18 December 2024 @ 11:47 am
WhoFundsThem is our new project looking into MPs’ and APPGs’ financial interests. We want to improve the information available in TheWorkForYou, make better data available, and improve the standard of politics in the UK. We and our volunteers have been doing lots over the last few months – here’s what’s new. New register of interests…
What have we learned about APPGs?
17 December 2024 @ 10:08 am
Our first round of information requests was a mixed bag: here’s what we learned and what we’re trying next. In mid-September we sent an information request to the 34 All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) that had been the first register of APPGs since the election. As we’ve written about before, APPGs can be a source…
Access to Information Network: legal framework masterclass
11 December 2024 @ 2:17 pm
If you’re trying to get the law changed, it can seem like a monumental task: where on earth do you start? One organisation that knows the answer is Access Info Europe: they have a long record of tirelessly working for better rights to information across the continent, and have systematised their approach. This month, their…
The Big Ben rule: reducing Parliamentary jargon
11 December 2024 @ 12:39 pm
The new House of Commons Modernisation Committee has made a call for submissions to reform House of Commons procedures, standards and working practices. We’re going to make a submission to the Committee, focused around a set of practical fixes. But there are also bigger issues that will take longer to work through. Over the next…
Democratic Transparency Organisations – moving beyond PMOs
10 December 2024 @ 3:44 pm
As part of our TICTeC work bringing together civic tech practitioners, we are running a community of practice for Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations (“PMOs”). The other week we ran a session looking at “Subnational PMOs”, and this blog post is to work through what I’ve learned from the speakers, why that was a bad name for…
November 2024 Notes from the ATI network
5 December 2024 @ 11:58 am
As this will be the last monthnotes of 2024 (because on New Years Eve we’ll be looking back at the past year and toasting to the wonderful strides we’ve all made in our work in 2024) we here at mySociety’s transparency team wanted to wish you all a happy holidays and a fantastic new year…
To fix Parliament, fix the Public Ombudsman
4 December 2024 @ 3:13 pm
The new House of Commons Modernisation Committee has made a call for submissions to reform House of Commons procedures, standards and working practices. We’re going to make a submission to the Committee, focused around a set of practical fixes. But there are also bigger issues that will take longer to work through. Over the next…
Call for participants
2 December 2024 @ 11:42 am
mySociety wants to help you use FOI in a campaign or advocacy project mySociety has the capacity to support a limited number of organisations working with marginalised populations in the UK. We’ll help you to make and analyse Freedom of Information (FOI) requests so you can use the data in your campaigning and advocacy. Sounds…
Using citizen assemblies to set standards and support for MPs
28 November 2024 @ 10:18 am
The new House of Commons Modernisation Committee has made a call for submissions to reform House of Commons procedures, standards and working practices. We’re going to make a submission to the Committee, focused around a set of practical fixes. But there are also bigger issues that will take longer to work through. Over the next…
WhoDoesWhat – a great idea we didn’t get funded (but we’ll keep trying)
22 November 2024 @ 9:02 am
A key part of my job is to think about problems that exist in the UK, understand where technical approaches can make a difference, and help make pitches to funders who care about those problems (or who like technical solutions), that we’re a good place to spend their money. A big part of that process…