Bulletin 10 September 2012

Equality and diversity in the House Service.  Following its agreement of the Diversity and Inclusion Scheme in January, the Commission agreed a package of initiatives intended to increase the representation and visibility of women and ethnic minority staff at senior levels in the House of Commons Service and asked to receive regular reports on progress. (Contact: Anne Foster – x1412)

Resolutions relating to expenditure charged to the Members Estimate.  The Members Estimate Committee agreed to up-date and re-publish in April 2013 the “Green Book” and the “Concordance” of resolutions.  This will ensure that Members have access to a clear statement of the current rules applying to IT provision, stationery, “Short Money”, etc.  The Committee will be seeking the agreement of the House to rescind those resolutions relating to Members' pay and allowances that are redundant following the transfer of responsibility to IPSA.  (Contact: Andrew Walker – x5460)

NATO Parliamentary Assembly.  The Commission approved funding on a contingent basis to allow the UK Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to offer to host the NATO PA Standing Committee in London in Spring 2015. (Contact: Jyoti Chandola – x3294)

Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards. The Commission took note with approval of a paper on the arrangements that were being put in place to assess the cost of the Banking Commission and to recover these costs from the Government. (Contact: Myfanwy Barrett – x0833)

iPad Deployment to Members. The Commission took note of a paper on progress with the deployment of iPads to Members and the opportunities for more effective working once such devices were in widespread use.  In particular, the Commission noted that seven committees had now resolved to move to electronic distribution of the committee papers and that the first committees would begin working in this way from the return of the House in October.  (Contact: Mark Hutton – x1365)

Observations on matters in the bulletin or other aspects of the House's administration should be sent to twiggerrj@parliament.uk for the attention of the Commission.

Commission membership: Mr Speaker (Chair), Sir Paul Beresford, Frank Doran, Angela Eagle, Andrew Lansley (Leader of the House) and John Thurso.