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Modernisation Committee

Answer

The Memorandum to the Modernisation Committee, published on 13 February 2025, set out the Committee’s next steps, following the consultation exercise it held between October and December 2024. The Memorandum stated that the Committee intended to pursue three broad packages of work. These were: improving accessibility for MPs, staff and the public; effective use of the Commons; and creating more certainty about the timing and nature of parliamentary business.

So far, the Committee has prioritised work on the first of these three themes. It launched an inquiry into Access to the House of Commons and its Procedures on 20 March 2025. Between April and July, it held seven oral evidence sessions, hearing from disabled MPs and former MPs, staff, and peers, and from academics and senior House of Commons staff, including the Clerk of the House and the Director General. Transcripts of all the sessions are available on the Committee’s website. The inquiry has also drawn on submissions to the consultation exercise, questionnaire responses, written evidence, and one-to-one interviews.

A report with recommendations to the House authorities and others is currently in preparation. A letter from the Director General to the then Chair of the Modernisation Committee, dated 28 May 2025, outlines some of the measures that have already been taken as a result of the Committee’s inquiry. This letter is also available on the Committee’s website.

The other two themes mentioned in the Memorandum remain areas of interest and ongoing work for the Committee, but have not yet been the subject of an inquiry. The Modernisation Committee made it clear in its Memorandum that it wants to work with other committees and it awaits with interest the outcome of the Procedure Committee’s inquiries into call lists, and electronic voting, the Standards Committee’s inquiry into outside employment and interests, and the Administration Committee’s inquiry into health and wellbeing.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

83211

Session

2024-26

Subjects

Modernisation Committee

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk