Better data (recommendations) for a more transparent and effective parliament

OpenUp, OUTA and PMG have been collaborating on the ParliMeter Dashboard for nearly a year, in preparation for it's launch on 6 March, 2025. Throughout our process of user engagement and testing we have noticed the same feature requests and questions coming from a broad range of stakeholders. We thought it would be useful to share these recommendations for steps parliament could take that would allow us to address these requests.

Cutting to the chase for this post, we have put all of our current recommendations into two lists below. Over time we will be adding and tracking recommendations on our recommendations page. If you or your organisation would like to contribute or collaborate on progressing these recommendations, please get in touch!

Data recommendations

These recommendations all pertain to data which we would like to see made available through an official and publicly accessible parliamentary API. Some of this information is currently available, but it is often difficult to find and in formats that make it labor intensive to use in a meaningful way.

1. Committee and plenary attendance records
2. Current and historic positions for members of parliament
3. Basic information for all members of parliament (date of birth, preferred gender, contact information, previous professional experience, home town etc.)
4. Committee and plenary meeting information (status, start time, end time, date, venue etc.)
5. Written and coded transcripts for plenary and committee meetings
6. Voting records for all members of parliament
7. Constituency information for all members of parliament
8. Current and historic declarations of interest for all members of parliament

Process recommendations

These recommendations all pertain to process or infrastructure improvements that could make the collection of important parliamentary data easier, as well as improve the day-to-day lives of parliamentarians.

1. Implement an access tag system that allow members of parliament to swipe in to register their presence in committee and plenary meetings.
2. Implement a user friendly and reliably updated system for viewing the parliamentary schedule. Including dates, times, venues, venue changes, cancellations and postponements.
3. Upgrade to a push-to-talk audio/video system to improve audio quality and enable more effective tracking of members contributions in committee meetings.
4. Make a camera feed that captures the entire committee room available and allows for the easy tracking of non-speaking or non-committee members present.
5. Implement a standardized coding system for all members, bills, committees, BRRR recommendations, written questions and responses, calls for comment etc. that will make the tracking and evaluation of these entities over time simpler.
6. Implement a user friendly constituency map and calendar that let's citizens know when the members of parliament responsible for their community are scheduled to be available on their constituency breaks.
7. Implement a tagging and categorization system allows for the finding, sorting and tracking of parliamentary data according to user-friendly and descriptive terms. eg. "education", "environment", "public participation" etc.
8. Create an open parliamentary research repository that will lower the current resource burden that effects parties, members and committees.

Stay up to date

If you want to keep track of these and other recommendations, please follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn, or bookmark our recommendations page. We also post updates to our recommendations in our newsletter, so subscribe today!