Lord Speaker visits Belfast
5 April 2012
Baroness D'Souza will attend the Political Studies Association (PSA) Annual Conference today (Thursday 5 April) in Belfast.
She will speak to attendees about the role of the House of Lords in the effective scrutiny of government, the impact of the House on the legislative process and why engaging with members of the House of Lords can be valuable.
The event is a series of presentations organised by the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA), the membership and representative umbrella body for the voluntary and community sector of Northern Ireland. The Lord Speaker will also take questions in a session after her address.
Afterwards, the Lord Speaker will participate in a workshop called ‘Engagement and Impact’ joining Mr Speaker, John Bercow MP, Matt Flinders from the University of Sheffield and the BBC’s Northern Ireland political editor, Mark Davenport. PSA chief executive Helen Djurkovic will chair the discussion. The panel will then be asked to discuss a range of topics chosen by the chair and members of the audience.
It is expected that Baroness D'Souza will also talk about how the House of Lords engages with the public, particularly the success of the Peers in Schools programme that has seen members of the House of Lords undertake over 500 visits, reaching around 30,000 pupils, as well as plans for a similar programme engaging with universities.
About the PSA conference
The 2012 conference runs from the 3rd to 5th April and it is expected that approximately 500 delegates will attend. The main theme of this year’s conference is ‘in defence of politics’. The vast majority of attendees will be academics, people working within universities and think tanks.
About PSA
The PSA, established in 1950, links UK academics in political science and current affairs, theorists and practitioners, policy-makers, journalists, researchers and students in higher education. The association currently has a membership of approximately 1,700.