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SPG Annual Weekend Homepage
How to make the most of the conference virtually
On this page you can find more information about our annual weekend, including a PDF version of the conference programme.
The Chatham House Rule
The SPG Annual Weekend operates under the Chatham House Rule by default. Where this rule may not apply, the chair of the respective panel session will make this clear. For those unfamiliar with the specifics of the Chatham House Rule, this means that “participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.” The Chatham House Rule always applies to the Q&A parts of any SPG event.
** Please note that the Chatham House Rule also applies to Twitter**
Friday 9th January
| Session | Time | Description |
| Welcome Fitzhugh Auditorium | 12:45-13:00 | Emma Crewe, SPG Chair and Professor of Social Anthropology, SOAS University of London Tom Healey, SPG Deputy Chair and Clerk of Bills, House of Commons |
| Session 1 Fitzhugh Auditorium | 13:00-14:30 | Gender and Diversity Sensitive Parliaments and Politics This panel will consider how members with different backgrounds, expertise and identities experience parliament differently and with what impacts? How well/badly is parliament representing the interests of different groups? Chair: Emma Crewe – SPG Chair and Professor of Social Anthropology, SOAS University of London Rosie Campbell and Shaminder Takhar – Parliament and Black Women’s maternal health/mortality Sarah Childs and Meryl Kenny – The Scottish GSP Audit and After Shirin Rai – Gender and Diversity in the Indian Parliament |
| Break | 14:30-14:45 | Opportunity to catch up with group members. Or take some time away from the screen if you are joining us virtually. |
| Session 2 Fitzhugh Auditorium | 14:45-16:15 | Parliaments and Public Policy This panel brings together experts from different institutions involved in the development of public policy to consider the role of Parliaments in that landscape. Traditionally Parliaments’ work focuses on debating, amending, approving or rejecting proposals brought to them by others: legislation or authorisation of expenditure from Governments for example, or petitions from members of the public. But Parliaments, their committees and individual parliamentarians also participate in formulation of policy. How are they doing this? Could they be doing it more effectively? Chair: Gosia McBride – Principal Clerk, Select Committees, UK House of Commons Des McNulty– Chair of the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub at the University of Birmingham. Former Dean for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow and Honorary Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University. Former Minister and Committee Chair in the Scottish Parliament Stephen Holden Bates – Senior Lecturer in Political Sciences at the University of Birmingham Alun Davidson – Head of Procedures and Parliamentary Skills, Senedd Cymru |
| Coffee/Refreshment Break Dakota Café | 16:15-16:45 | Opportunity to catch up with group members. Or take some time away from the screen if you are joining us virtually. |
| Session 3 Fitzhugh Auditorium | 16:45-17:45 | Belonging to Parliament This roundtable will address who feels a sense of belonging, ease or discomfort in parliament and why, whether members, staff, witnesses or visitors. Chair: Sarah Childs, Professor of Politics and Gender, University of Edinburgh Anna Dickson – Director of Research, House of Commons Emma Peplow – Head of Oral History, History of Parliament Trust Dr Marc Geddes – Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh Dr Tom Caygill – Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University |
| Break | 17:45-18:00 | Opportunity to catch up with group members. Or take some time away from the screen if you are joining us virtually. |
| Wheeler-Booth Memorial Lecture Fitzhugh Auditorium | 18:00-19:00 | Wheeler-Booth Memorial Lecture Richard Lloyd OBE Chair, Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority Chair: Tom Healey |
| Buffet Dinner Dakota Café | 19:15 | |
| After-dinner Quiz Fitzhugh Auditorium | 20:45 | Join us for our conference quiz. |
Saturday 10th January
| Session | Time | Panellists |
| Breakfast Dakota Café | 08:00-09:00 | |
Annual General Meeting Fitzhugh Auditorium | 09:00-10:00 | SPG Executive Members |
| Coffee/Refreshment break | 10:00-10:30 | Opportunity to catch up with group members. Or take some time away from the screen if you are joining us virtually. |
| Session 4 | 10:30-12:00 | The UK assisted dying bill The ongoing passage of the UK assisted dying bill at Westminster – formally the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, a private member’s bill – has been the focus of major public and political interest. The bill has also seen a number of noteworthy procedural developments in both the Commons and the Lords. Contributors to this panel will discuss the bill’s passage to date – from its pre-legislative drafting to early Lords stages – reflecting on what it tells us about Westminster’s legislative processes. Chair: Daniel Gover, Senior Lecturer in British Politics, Queen Mary University of London Elizabeth Gardiner – bill drafter & former First Parliamentary Counsel Lucinda Maer – Deputy Head of the Public Bill Office and the lead bill clerk for the bill, House of Commons Duncan Sagar – Clerk of Legislation, House of Lords Mark D’Arcy – Parliament Matters podcast |
| Lunch break Dakota Café | 12:00-13:15 | Including opportunity for breakout meetings |
| Session 5 Fitzhugh Auditorium | 13:15-14:15 | The Relationship between the Civil Service and Parliament? This session is focussed on relationships between the civil service and Parliament. Our speakers are ex civil servants who have been involved in Parliament and they will be talking about their experience in the civil service, what they thought of Parliament as civil servants, how important Parliament was to them when they worked in the civil service and how big a role Parliament played in their lives as civil servants and lastly how Parliament, clerks, committee staff, MPs and all can engage more effectively with the civil service. Chair: Meg Russell, Professor of British and Comparative Politics, University College London Ian Bradshaw – Secretary to the Independent Expert Panel, House of Commons Ben Sneddon – Clerk of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, House of Commons Matthew Gill – Programme Director, Institute for Government |
| Coffee/Refreshment break | 14:15-14:45 | Opportunity to catch up with group members. Or take some time away from the screen if you are joining us virtually. |
| Session 6 | 14:45-16:15 | Reforming backbench bill procedures The topic of private members’ bill reform has recently been pushed back onto the Westminster agenda by the assisted dying bill, while the Welsh Senedd is currently reviewing its member bills system. Almost two decades ago the Canadian House of Commons made significant changes to its own processes, while a very different scheme operates in Holyrood. This panel will bring together perspectives from four different legislatures on backbench bill procedures – including the trade-offs between different goals – with a view to considering how things could be done differently at Westminster and elsewhere. Chair: Daniel Gover, Senior Lecturer in British Politics, Queen Mary University of London Charlie Feldman – Canadian Parliamentary Counsel & Past President of the Canadian Study of Parliament Group Roz Thomson – Head of the Non-Government Bills Unit, Scottish Parliament Helen Finlayson – Clerk for Legislative Procedural Review, Welsh Parliament Anne-Marie Griffiths – Clerk of Private Members’ Bills, House of Commons |