Research Briefing
On 25 June 1979 the House of Commons agreed to establish a new system of departmental select committees to scrutinise the expenditure, administration and policy of government departments. This paper briefly sets out the historical background to the departmental select committees system before charting their development over the last 30 years, considering evaluations made of the system and recent proposals for reform.
Research Briefing
This guide outlines the related concepts of confidence intervals and statistical significance and gives examples of the standard way that both are calculated or tested.
Research Briefing
This note provides a very brief history of the evolution of Members' salaries and the main allowances available to support them in their parliamentary duties.
Research Briefing
This guide gives a general overview of the concepts of uncertainty and risk, highlights their connection to other aspects of statistical literacy and looks at the communication and understanding of risk.
Research Briefing
This note traces a brief history of the office of Comptroller and Auditor General and examines current proposals to reform the corporate governance of the National Audit Office.
Research Briefing
This note provides data on the electoral performance of the UK's British National Party (BNP) in local and parliamentary elections. This note has been updated to include results from the local elections held in England on 1 May 2008. It also comments upon results from various elections up to 2006, as well as overall results from the 2007 and 2008 local elections.
Research Briefing
This note outlines the background to the CSPL inquiry and contrasts the Government's proposals for reforming the allowances' system with the conclusions reached by the MEC in its June 2008 Review of Allowances. It briefly notes some reaction and responses to the Government's proposals and gives details of the current amounts that Members can claim under the allowances.
Research Briefing
This note provides a timeline showing the developments relating to Members' allowances that have followed the Senior Salaries Review Body's Review of parliamentary pay, pensions and allowances 2007.
Research Briefing
This Note sets out brief details of the system of pay and allowances in several European and Commonwealth countries, the European Union, and the House of Lords. It also includes information on the employment of relatives by Members of Parliament in other countries.
Research Briefing
A complete list of all Members who have served in the House of Commons since the 1979 General Election, together with basic biographical and parliamentary data, correct to 31 March 2009.
Research Briefing
This Note offers a brief introduction to the draft Bribery Bill published on 24 March 2009. For several years there has been pressure to update the UK anti corruption legislation, last amended in 1916, not least from the OECD and other international organisations who are promoting global anti corruption initiatives. The draft bill and white paper published on 25 March would implement proposals from the Law Commission in November 2008.
Research Briefing
This paper reviews the background to the introduction of the new mechanism for determining Members' pay and provides an overview of the developments in Members' pay since salaries were introduced in 1911.
Research Briefing
This Note looks briefly at political groups in the European Parliament.
Research Briefing
Social scientists are often interested in analysing whether a relationship exists between two variables in a population. For instance, is greater corruption control associated with higher GDP per capita? Does increased per capita health expenditure lead to lower rates of infant mortality? Statistics can give us information about the strength of association, this can sometimes help in deciding if there is a causal relationship, but they are not sufficient to establish this on their own.
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