About the Study of Parliament Group

On this page:   Introduction   Membership   The Executive Committee   History

See also: Details of some of the academic members.

Introduction

The formal statement of what the Group is to do is as follows:

• To best advance and further public education in the art or science of government through Parliament (including the working of Parliament and Parliamentary institutions) or other branches of political science;
• To best advance and further the study of and research into methods of government through Parliament (including the working of Parliament and Parliamentary institutions) or other branches of political science, in and for the benefit of the community as a whole, and to publish the results of such study and research;
• to best advance public education in forms of parliamentary government and representative assemblies (whether or not such forms shall be actual or theoretical).

Membership

1. past and present staff (including graduates holding post-doctoral research positions) of universities and other academic or research institutions;
2. postgraduate research students currently registered at a university within the United Kingdom;
3. past and present officials of two Houses of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly, Tynwald, the Oireachtas and the Channel Islands parliaments; and
4. other persons having a serious and proven interest in the objects of the Group, not being members of any of the above legislatures when first elected to membership.

Candidates' details are circulated to existing Group members for their views by email (usually in batches, roughly once a month), and then the Executive Committee considers the applications (again, usually by email rather than waiting for a meeting). Initial inquiries, preferably accompanied by details of work done in the areas of the Group's interests (see above) should be addressed to:

• categories i, ii and iv: Dr Louise Thompson (louise.thompson-4manchester.ac.uk)
• category iii: Elise Uberoi (uberoieparliament.uk).

We have an application form here.

The current annual subscription is £25 (apart from category ii, where it is £10): this will be asked for if and when the application has been successful.

Some of our academic members have given details of their interests here.

The Executive Committee

President: Professor Lord Norton of Louth, Professor of Government and Director of the Centre for Legislative Studies, University of Hull
Chair: Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Professor of Politics, University of Leeds
Deputy Chair: Tom Healey, Chamber and Committees team, House of Commons
Secretaries: (official) Elise Uberoi, House of Commons
        (academic) Dr Louise Thompson, Senior Lecture in Politics, University of Manchester
Newsletter editor: Henry Midgley, National Audit Office
Treasurer: Richard Kelly, House of Commons Library
Other members:
    Tom Caygill (communications), Lecturer in Politics, Newcastle University
    Clare Cowan, Bank of England
    Brigid Fowler, Senior Researcher, Hansard Society
    Professor Graham Gee, Professor of Public Law, University of Sheffield
    Stephen Imrie, Scottish Parliament
    Angela Kelly, Northern Ireland Assembly
    Simon Patrick OBE (webmaster), Chamber and Committees team, House of Commons (retired)
    Richard Reid, School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University
    Christine Salmon Percival, Parliament Office, House of Lords
    Aileen Walker OBE, HC Library (retired)
    Hannah White OBE, Institute for Government
    Gareth Williams, National Assembly for Wales
    Huw Yardley, Chamber and Committees team, House of Commons
    Ben Yong, Durham University

History

In 1985 the Group published a short History entitled The Study of Parliament Group: The First Twenty-one Years, by Dermot Englefield. You can read it here (except for the Appendices).