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Government, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Parliament, Public Bill Committee, Public Reading
We’re loving the government’s recent mischief into the world of social media and new media generally, and this latest development is pretty hot, even if we do say so ourselves. And it is an all time first in the history of the House of Commons.
What are we getting all excited about? Well, The House of Commons has decided to make the Children and Families Bill a fully interactive affair by launching an on-line facility for members of the public to comment on The Bill itself, directly.
And it’s been done beautifully. The Bill has been divided up into sections, so you can pick which areas of the proposed legislation you’d like to comment on and it couldn’t be easier to comment. Simply click on the section of the Bill you would like to comment on and leave your thoughts in the box below. The best, and to our mind, sexiest part? You can see the comments which are left. Nice and transparent, assuming all comments (which don’t fall foul of any laws) are posted.
This new process, that of allowing members of the public to comment on proposed legislation in this way, is being called a public reading. A summary of comments left will then be made available to members of the Public Bill Committee, in charge of overseeing the Children and Families Bill.
The awesomeness doesn’t end there, though. If you want to leave less of a comment and more of a considered work, you can do so by submitting your information or evidence to a contact given below the body of the page on the Parliament website, at the bottom, and there’s lots more helpful info on other resources that might be useful.
We love the way the page gives you a helpful break down of the Bill, what each section entails and the kind of feedback the government would like to receive. You can also find out a little more about the thinking behind Public Readings, how they started and the way The Children and Families Bill is piloting this process.
The closing date for comments and feedback is Tuesday 26 February.
A massive thumbs up to the tech or comms departments responsible for developing the Parliament website into what we feel will one day be one of the most cutting edge government websites of the twenty-first century. You go, gov……
Families consist of parents, grandparents aunts & uncles sisters, brothers ,cousins and step siblings. This constitutes the family. Children thrive from the love, care and involvement of all members of family life. Grandparents especially suffer from loss of important contact with their grandchildren and loving bonds are broken. It is time to right the wrongs that exist which break up the family and breaks the support from important people in a child’s life. I have spoken many time over the last 12 years to MP’s and especially Tim Laughton, He understood the situation that grandparents face when they lose a loving relationship with their grandchildren. Please consider uniting children and families the family was designed to raise children, and let us face facts it is the children that are being denied a stable happy home life. Life experience which grandparents live over many years is invaluable, many situations they have dealt with can help to raise children. Also we are many unpaid baby sitters
because we do this for love of the children. It is a child’s right to know their whole family on both side of their parents and can protect the unity of family life.
Thanks Natasha, I’m pleased you like it. It’s something we’ve been working on for a while now and were just waiting for the right bill to come along…
Tracy Green
Head of Online Services, UK Parliament
Thank you for getting in touch, Tracy and for the innovative things you guys are doing!
Hello Natasha
Thank you for your post. This sort of feedback is so helpful & we’re delighted you find the forum easy to use. This public reading is a pilot and we will be thinking about ways to improve.
Jessica Mulley
Head of the Scrutiny Unit
House of Commons
Thank you for your comment Jessica; I think yours is one of the best websites around for parliament/ politics. I hope the pilot goes well and thank you for making the site so much fun to use.
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