What next for restoration and renewal of parliament? | Institute for Government An expert panel explores how parliament should approach the major restoration project, including lessons from other countries and industry.

Excited to be be part of this brilliant @instituteforgovernment.org.uk panel discussion on R&R next month. Register here: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/what-n...

Keir Starmer, in his first eighteen months, has had three. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss had one each. Boris Johnson contrived to have nine, while Theresa May made do with just three, as did David Cameron. Gordon Brown had four, as did Tony Blair. John Major managed with only two, while Margaret Thatcher had five.

Quiz below. Solution here: psaparliaments.org/2026/04/22/e...

Written parliamentary questions from MPs: Recent trends MPs can submit questions to government departments to scrutinise their work. The number of questions submitted by MPs increased by 93% between 2024 and 2025.

New Commons Library briefing: recent trends on Written parliamentary questions from MPs

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

My favourite singer since I was 14 yo. Amazing.

Alice Bacon Lecture 2026 delivered by Frances O'Grady On Thursday 12 March, the 2026 Alice Bacon Lecture was delivered by celebrated trade unionist Frances O’Grady, former General Secretary of the TUC and currently a Labour peer in the House of Lords.

We were delighted to welcome Frances O’Grady, former General Secretary of the TUC and Labour peer, to deliver the seventh Alice Bacon Lecture on Thursday 12th March.

The lecture was hosted by @cdpleeds.bsky.social

Read more about the event here ⬇️
essl.leeds.ac.uk/politics/new...

Mass Observing British politics - British Politics British Politics - The current political moment in Britain is characterised by disaffection, affective polarisation, and populist mobilisation of these (dis)affections. How best to research these...

Very useful piece by Nick Clarke, Alex Hill and Jonathan Moss on an archive heavily used by historians of modern Britain - and underutilised by scholars of British politics.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Rachel Reeves in front of a large black and white photo of Alice Bacon campaigning in Leeds

Frances O'Grady in front of a large black and white photo of Alice Bacon campaigning in Leeds

Another brilliant Alice Bacon lecture organised by @cdpleeds.bsky.social! Super inspiring having the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer introduce a talk from the first female General Secretary of the TUC 🙌 and to have so many of my fab @polisatleeds.bsky.social students in the audience

The Backbench Business Committee 15 years on: Has it given backbench MPs a stronger voice in the House of Commons? Fifteen years after its creation, the Backbench Business Committee has become an important mechanism through which MPs can secure debates and raise issues in the House of Commons. Drawing on new resea...

The Backbench Business Committee 15 years on: has it given backbench MPs a stronger voice in the House of Commons? from yours truly with @louisevthompson.bsky.social for the @hansardsociety.bsky.social : www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blog/backben...

😊

With @profsarahchilds.bsky.social at the Canadian Study of Parliament Group - a photo for @marcgeddes.uk #legislatures

An excellent and touching tribute to David Judge, an incredible thinker and scholar but also such a kind, supportive and generous academic. A huge and very sad loss.

Remembering David Judge (1950 - 2026). I first met David in 1999. He was such an incredible person, we could do with more Davids in academia. Here is something I wrote when I heard the news last week, published by @psa-parliaments.bsky.social: psaparliaments.org/2026/02/17/r...

Once again, there is still no alternative: the costed proposals for Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster The Restoration and Renewal Client Board’s latest report once again confirms what Parliament has known for nearly a decade: the cheapest, quickest and safest way to restore the Palace of Westminster i...

Thanks to @hansardsociety.bsky.social for inviting me to write about the costed proposals for the Restoration & Renewal of the Palace of Westminster www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blog/restora... 2026 marks 10 years since I started researching R&R, so good to know it'll keep me busy for many, many more

Hmm, really not impressed, don't think they'd deserve to be part of my collection of parliamentary mugs...

Recommended Options Discounted Options Full decant EMI + Continued Presence EMI Total Programme duration 19–24 years 38–61 years 33–45 years 52–84 years Total Programme cost (including optimism bias and risk but excluding inflation and opportunities) £8.4–11.5bn £11.8–18.7bn £9.7–13.7bn £12.0–19.4bn Average annual cost (excluding opportunities) £440–490m £310–310m £290–300m £230–230m Highest annual cost (including opportunities) £600–760m £430–530m £460–620m £360–410m Total Programme cost (including optimism bias and risk and inflation but excluding opportunities) £11.1–15.6bn £19.5–39.2bn £14.4–22bn £23.3–56.3bn Net present cost £4.2–5.7bn £5.1–6.6bn £4.6–6.4bn £4.5–5.5bn House of Commons Chamber decant period 8–10 years For up to two years to the House of Lords Chamber 11–15 years to the House of Lords Chamber The Chambers are not expected to be decanted. House of Lords Chamber decant period 12–15 years 8–13 years 24–33 years Parliamentary business Delivered with changes in the location and proximity of spaces and services which will require consideration of new ways of working. Delivered with changes in the location and proximity of spaces and services which will require consideration of new ways of working. For areas of continued occupancy there is a risk of later need for an unplanned decant, including for core parliamentary business functions (such as the Chambers or services directly supporting them) if disruption becomes intolerable.

And here's the costed proposals for Restoration and Renewal. Two options recommended: full decant and EMI+. Full decant will be cheaper and quicker - staying in the Palace during the works will means it takes up to 61 years and costs up to £18.7bn. Full link committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Services in the Palace of Westminster are vast: there are over 14 miles of pipework and roughly 250 miles of cabling which support parliamentary business and other functions and activities across the Palace. • On average each month sees around 2,900 reactive maintenance jobs raised, approximately 87% of which are repairs completed on an initial visit, together with around 380 minor works. Between 2021/22 and 2023/24 reactive maintenance tasks increased by 70%. In the month this report has been drafted, issues in the Palace have included: – failure of heating to a significant area of the House of Lords; – significant problems with the sewerage system; – ongoing loss of toilets in the areas that have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) as well as four sets of toilets out of action; and – water leaks into the Colonnade. • Since 2016, there have been: – 36 fire incidents; – 12 asbestos incidents; and – 19 stonemasonry incidents. • Only 12% of the Palace of Westminster’s total floor area currently has step-free access. • £1.5m is spent per week maintaining and repairing the Palace of Westminster. • It is estimated that the cost of delaying starting the delivery phase of the Programme is around £70m per year at current prices in nugatory options development and additional reactive maintenance costs; • It is estimated that there would be a further £250m to £350m in the inflationary impact on construction costs across the whole of the Programme for each year of delay. • Between 1,500 and 4,000 full time equivalent roles will be needed each year over the lifetime of construction to deliver the Restoration and Renewal Programme for the Palace of Westminster

A very helpful box setting out both why this work is required & the cost of continued delays. As the intro to the report says: "Continuing in the same way is unsustainable, will lead to an expensive managed decline of the Palace of Westminster and will mean increasing safety and operational risks"

Box 1: Key decisions by parliamentarians The Houses agreed there was a need to do an R&R Programme in: • 2012 when the House of Commons Commission and the House of Lords House Committee published a pre-feasibility study on restoration and renewal and concluded that “doing nothing is not an option” and that a decision on the long-term future of the Palace of Westminster needed to be made soon; • the 2016 Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster report, which concluded in its report that there is “… a clear and pressing need to tackle the work required to the Palace of Westminster”;23 • 2018 during debates on the report from the Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster, the Houses supported full decant as a preferred delivery option;24 • 2019 when the Houses passed the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019; • 2022 when the Houses agreed a new mandate for the Programme; and • 2024, when the Client Board published its Strategic Case for the Programme.25

This is bleakly comic: six times when Parliament has agreed the need for a major programme of works to the Palace of Westminster, and yet we'll need another vote in 2026 and then a further vote in mid 2030.

Why we need to strengthen and codify small party rights in the House of Commons Following the Unit’s January seminar, Can the House of Commons handle multi-party politics?, panellist Louise Thompson explains the procedural and logistical obstacles facing small parties in…

Why we need to strengthen and codify small party rights in the House of Commons, by @louisevthompson.bsky.social for @conunitucl.bsky.social : constitution-unit.com/2026/01/26/w...

Happy birthday Charlie:)

This morning the Scottish Affairs Committee published a report on the draft Scotland Act 1998 (Modification of Schedule 5) Order 2026.

The report makes some important observations about how the UK and Scottish Parliaments scrutinise Scotland Act orders ⤵️

committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Great news to start the week - our article in Climate Policy Journal was #5 in views in 2025 - free access below:👇

annoyingly it has happens often! It's not the first SPG that I've had to miss due to the weather and the fact our public transport can't cope with snow. It wont be the last :( - fact I live middle of nowhere doesn't help.

Sadly storm Goretti has scuppered my travel plans (🦒🦒🦒aplenty), so I'll be following on Zoom. Sad for not being able to catch up with friends😔, but will follow programme online.

A great post by Jessica which gives an insight into each of the eight Guides on Citizen Engagement for Parliaments that we launched last month:👇

Friendship is going all the way to New Zealand, getting me a mug from the Parliament, keeping it for three years until we finally met in person last Friday and @bymyong.bsky.social was able to give me the mug, to add to my collection of parliamentary cups and mugs 😊 . Thank you Ben 🙏 .

Indeed!:)

Indeed, super job @gracecooper1.bsky.social 😊🙏👏👏 (an all conferences should be in York or Hull - much easier for me to travel to😉).

Thank you for a fab conference! To you for organising it all and all speakers. Lovely to catch up with old and few friends, and to meet some people in person for first time. And for once it was a conference just down the road from me, no giraffes, a quick and easy trip for me😊.

Congrats Dr Martin! A pleasure to have acted as external examiner of your PhD 😊 (love the photo, and yes, I'm tiny...;)).

Hi @darcyxtip.bsky.social / @ruthfox.bsky.social, on Westminster Hall, @louisevthompson.bsky.social and I have been doing some research on it and have a blog post about it with interim findings: psaparliaments.org/2025/01/05/w...