It also makes me wonder which laws or procedures are thought of as “the novel and exciting ones”. Unless they are all arcane and obscure!

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...

Written Parliamentary Questions - Our evidence to the House of Commons Procedure Committee The use of Written Parliamentary Questions (WPQs) is rising sharply. Since July 2024, MPs have tabled questions at unprecedented levels. By late 2025 MPs were tabling over 600 per sitting day, more…

Later today the Procedure Committee is hearing from a Conservative Shadow Minister and the Lib Dem Chief Whip on Written Parliamentary Questions (WPQs).

The Hansard Society submitted evidence to this inquiry – here’s what we found 🧵
www.hansardsociety.org.uk/publications...

🚨 New paper accepted at the @bjpols.bsky.social: we were in the field while Brexit dominated British politics.

Do MPs respond differently when constituents disagree with the party line?

What we find surprised us: a null!

url: osf.io/preprints/os...

graphic that reads 'we're hiring: LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methods'

🎓️ We're hiring an LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methods

We are seeking to appoint an individual with established research interests and teaching experience in qualitative methods🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Applications close👉️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

PSA Parliaments | LinkedIn PSA Parliaments | A Political Studies Association Specialist Group focusing on the study and teaching of parliaments and legislatures.

🎉 Exciting news! 🎉

💫 We now have a LinkedIn page!

💻 Follow us to get updates on conferences, events, our blog and much more!

🔗 www.linkedin.com/company/psa-...

😊 Feel free to start tagging us in any LinkedIn posts @psaparliaments

Academic Job Market Trends in Politics and International Relations - Political Studies Association Academic Job Market Trends in Politics and International Relations: Evidence from the UK, 2012-25 Authored by: Dr Ralph Scott, Dr Lawrence McKay, and Dr William Allen Read the full report here   Execu...

🚨 NEW REPORT! 🚨

What is the state of the UK academic job market in politics, and what does this mean for the field and #highered?

In a new @psaecn.bsky.social report, @lawrencemckay.bsky.social @williamlallen.bsky.social and I find worrying trends in job adverts and HESA data from 2012-25

#PSA26

Rough reading, but great work by @ralphscott.bsky.social, @lawrencemckay.bsky.social, and @williamlallen.bsky.social. Things are not ok out there!

www.psa.ac.uk/resources/ac...

🎉 Our first #PSA26 panel, “What is Parliament?”, was a fantastic start to our programme! Thank you @stephenholdenbates.bsky.social, @alyssamartin.bsky.social, James Strong, Shirin Rai and @pandapoliticus.bsky.social 😊

AJPS article from @kenbenoit.bsky.social, Scott de Marchi, Conor Laver, Michael Laver, and Jinshuai Ma on using LLMs to analyse political texts.

🧵 1/8 Social science research requires reliable extraction of information from texts to identify authors' preferences on various policies and issues.

We are looking forward to the @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social annual conference next week! 🙌🏻 #PSA26

Want to know what to expect of the Hungarian election next month? Read a true expert! 👇

Private members' bills This briefing describes the stages a bill goes through when it is introduced to the House of Commons as a private member's bill.

Very happy to have been able to contribute to the latest Commons Library briefing paper on private members’ bills. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Since the government reshuffle in Sept25, the representation of women among cabinet ministers has dropped slightly from 48% to 44% - but remains higher than under any previous prime minister.

Ahead of International Women’s Day, here's some insights from our interviews with women who served in govt

There is probably no easy answer to this, but building more ethical recruitment processes - actually sitting down and thinking what that should look like given the conditions of the job market - is the least departments could do.

This is an important thread. The other side of this is how departments run job searches in this climate. Ask any ECR and you will hear some horrible stories about their experiences going through recruitment processes.

🧵on my new paper "Synthetic personas distort the structure of human belief systems" w Roberto Cerina I'm v excited about...

🚨 Do synthetic samples look like human samples?

We compare 28 LLMs to the 2024 General Social Survey (GSS) to find out + develop host of diagnostics...

3 weeks to decide, 9 months salary to choose to leave - almost certainly forever - the industry you've dedicated most of your adult life to.

Casework Crisis: Increase In Constituency Caseload Takes Its Toll The inexorable growth in casework is stopping MPs from fulfilling their other roles. Alice Lilly sifts through the inbox looking for what might be ...

The workload facing MPs and their staff is growing, in ways that aren't visible to the public: casework and the inbox.

For @thehousemag.bsky.social, I delved into what the workload looks like, why it's growing, and what this means for how MPs can balance the different aspects of their role

Classic portrayal of men in politics.

What I call the "Daggy Dad" - an “everyman” character that balanced blokiness with an appearance of compassion and traditional family values.

Their families are just tools to increase their political legitimacy.

#AusPol

🚨📄 New paper (conditional accepted at @thejop.bsky.social):

We test whether social desirability bias actually distorts answers in online surveys.

Short version:
It mostly doesn’t.

w. @timallinger.bsky.social @kristianvsf.bsky.social @morganlcj.bsky.social

URL: osf.io/preprints/os...

Gender Quota Laws and Women in Cabinets 36 Pages Posted: 16 Dec 2024 Last revised: 11 Feb 2026 Tiffany Barnes University of Texas at Austin Giulia Venturini University of Strathclyde Ana Weeks University of Bath Date Written: December 06, 2024 Abstract Do legislative gender quotas increase women’s presence in cabinets? Women remain underrepresented in political leadership worldwide. As a remedy, over 80 countries have adopted gender quotas, requiring parties to nominate or elect a minimum share of women. But can quotas have effects beyond the positions they directly target? We argue that quotas increase the presence of women in executive cabinets by expanding the pool of experienced female legislators. Using a global dataset (168 countries) from 1990 to 2021, we find gender quotas increase the share of women ministers by 15 percent relative to the average baseline–including increases in both high- and lowprestige portfolios. Consistent with a supply-side mechanism, effects are largest in parliamentary democracies—where ministers are often selected from parliament—and in countries that experienced the greatest increases in women’s legislative representation post-quota. The findings suggest quotas can generate meaningful spillover effects at the highest levels of government.

“I am delighted to conditionally accept your article for publication in The Journal of Politics.”

🥳

We find that gender quota laws for legislatures also increase the share of women in cabinets.

w @gventurini.bsky.social @tiffanydbarnes.bsky.social

dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

Extract from The Times newsletter: The prime minister wants to appoint someone immediately to the job to avoid a power vacuum at the heart of government. This means only those shortlisted for the job when Wormald was appointed in December 2024 will be eligible. One of the candidates has left the civil service, while another was also involved in vetting Mandelson. By process of elimination, this puts Dame Antonia Romeo in pole position to become Britain’s first ever female cabinet secretary.

Extract from the Cabinet Manual: The Cabinet Secretary is the head of the Cabinet Secretariat. The Cabinet Secretary is appointed by the Prime Minister on the advice of the retiring Cabinet Secretary and the First Civil Service Commissioner.

This from The Times newsletter is also.. not right.

As Cabinet Manual sets out, PM appts on basis of advice from outgoing Cab Sec and 1st CS Commissioner.

PM is not at all dependent on those previously shortlisted. And can make a direct appt with minimal process (if that person is appropriate)

BJPolS abstract of a scholarly article discussing the influence of legislators' gender on the questioning behaviors in parliamentary activities.

NEW -

Gender Bias in Legislative Oversight: Do Parliamentarians Control Women Ministers More Tightly than Men Ministers? - https://cup.org/45Rm9Z6

- @corinnakroeber.bsky.social, @lenastephan.bsky.social, @sarahdingler.bsky.social & @camilamontero.bsky.social

#OpenAccess

The House of Lords has voted to stop under 16s using social media – what happens now? The vote in the Lords took place on an amendment to the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

New piece by me for @uk.theconversation.com, explaining yesterday’s Lords vote on under-16s’ social media use.

‘The House of Lords has voted to stop under 16s using social media – what happens now?’

theconversation.com/the-house-of...

Four UQs in the Commons can be a good sign of parliamentary scrutiny but don't tend to be a sign that things in the world are "good"

Urgent questions in the House of Commons since 1997 Urgent questions asked from the beginning of the 1997-98 session, including the title, date and names of the Speaker granting, MP asking and minister responding.

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

📈Four UQs is a very rare record number of UQs in a single day, if we look at numbers since 1997 (particularly since the revival of UQs after 2010). The last time this happened was on 25 Oct 2021.

Three UQs in one day occurred most recently on 5 Jan, and this has happened eight times this session.

📝The Commons Procedure Committee is conducting an inquiry on Written Parliamentary Questions. Read evidence from colleagues at the link below ⬇️

@stephenholdenbates.bsky.social @carolinebha.bsky.social & Stephen McKay - WPQs use over time

@ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social - WPQs procedures comparatively

Very interesting piece from the HoL Library on amendments to 'that this bill do now pass' motions at Third Reading. Seems to suggest that no such amendment (whether fatal or non-fatal) had passed since, at the very least, the 70s until this Monday!

lordslibrary.parliament.uk/lords-public...