After all the dreadful stories in the past months about Parliament, I’m very pleased to bring you a piece of good news today! As many of you will know, our Information Committee has been carrying out an inquiry into how the House of Lords and Parliament as a whole can engage with the public and enable members of the public to communicate with it. And today we publish our report Are the Lords listening? Creating connections between people and Parliament

I give an overview of the report’s contents in a short YouTube video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzeM9ENwrGE]

I’d like to thank all of you who have contributed to make this possible. We received a large number of written submissions, YouTube videos, comments on our web forum and comments in response to my earlier blogs. All of the comments were considered by the Committee and helped to shape our deliberations. So I hope that you’ll take some time to read our report. If you do, you’ll see how much of what we say was shaped by what others said to us. I hope that you’ll read it and think – yes, the Lords do listen.

Tim Renton

Since we started in March we’ve received many many comments from people. We’re now having a one hour debate in the Lords this coming Tuesday evening, 16 June, on this subject. The following day, the full Committee will meet to discuss the contents of the Report on our Inquiry, which we plan to publish in July.

You may have seen all that has been put to the Committee already. This is a chance for you to send us any further comments, ahead of our debate in the Chamber – either on this blog or responding to my YouTube video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkUa5Woq1eU]

I will forward your comments to all the Members who will be participating in the debate.

We want to hear from as many interested members of the public as possible before we come to recommendations and conclusions.

Thank you very much for your interest.

Tim Renton

Lord Renton, House of Lords Information Committee

When does a Blogger, talking about himself, turn into an Inquisitor asking lots of questions?  That is what I want to become.

The Lords Information Committee, of which I am the proud chairman, is starting an inquiry this week in which we want to find out your thoughts about Parliament in general and the House of Lords in particular. We are calling it “People and Parliament”.

We are asking straightforward questions that we hope you will want to answer.

Parliament is, after all, the place where laws are decided and the long-term future of the UK is changed.

So:

• How could the House of Lords improve public understanding of its work?
• How could the House of Lords increase people’s interest in its work and Members?
• How could the House of Lords best enable people to interact with it?

We’re also particularly interested in hearing the views of young people and how they view the House of Lords.

Take part in our eConsultation, follow our inquiry on Twitter and come back to us with your comments. We will listen and learn.

In addition to the eConsultation, which is aimed at the general public, the Information Committee is also asking more detailed questions about online communication and engagement. The questions can be found in the Information Committee’s call for evidence.

Please also watch our YouTube video -  we would like you to post video responses to this film (via Parliament’s YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnPWORmLZF8) suggesting how we can improve understanding of the work and role of the House of Lords.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnPWORmLZF8]

Tim Renton