Culture, design and filter bubbles: looking back at #FutureParliament

Blog

Culture, design and filter bubbles: looking back at #FutureParliament

21 Nov 2016

To mark Parliament Week – a programme of activities connecting people across the UK with the Westminster Parliament – the Hansard Society hosted a half-day event to look at the problems with the legislative process, and how technology might help solve them.

Adam Dyster,
Events Manager, Sense4us, Hansard Society

Get our latest research, insights and events delivered to your inbox

Share this and support our work

The latest in our Future Parliament series of research and events, it also looked at how Westminster could best use the rupture of being uprooted from the Palace to drive innovation, including trialing new technology.

Capacity, Scrutiny and Engagement: Challenges and Opportunities

Our first panel looked at the current challenges to the legislative process within Parliament, and those areas where technology might be of greatest use, drawing on the Society's involvement in the mutli-national EU funded Sense4us technology research project.

Dr Ruth Fox, Director of the Hansard Society, chaired a discussion with Emma Allen, Director of Digital Development, Parliament Digital Service; Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow; and Liam Laurence Smyth, Clerk of Legislation in the House of Commons.

Changing culture

All the panelists raised culture change as a major issue for Parliament and technology - whether encouraging people to get involved with legislation, or moving beyond mass-email point-and-click campaigns.

Education

Education was also a clear factor for both the panelists and audience, helping the public understand both what Parliament does and decoding the language it uses.

Opportunities for improvement

With the challenges laid out, it was clear that technology could help improve the process.

Sense4us

With a break for refreshments, the audience was able to learn more about Sense4us, a multi-national technology research project funded by the European Commission to develop new information discovery tools for policy-makers and researchers. The Sense4us toolset includes new tools to support text analysis, social media search and sentiment, linked open data search, and dynamic policy model simulations.

Parliament as an innovation lab: Restoration and Renewal... and beyond

Our second panel looked more closely at the future of Parliament - and the potential opportunities for innovation across the Restoration and Renewal programme.

With MPs and Peers due to move out of the Palace into alternative locations in the Westminster area for a few years, could these temporary new Houses be turned into parliamentary laboratories to trial and test new digital technology?

BBC journalist and technology critic Bill Thompson chaired the discussion with Victoria Boelman, Principal Researcher in Government Innovation, Nesta; Elizabeth Linder, Founder of the Conversational Century; Rebecca Rumbul, Head of Research, mySociety; and Paul Walland, Director of Innovation at the IT Innovation Centre, University of Southampton, and co-ordinator of the Sense4us project.

Experimental design?

Regardless of what technologies Parliament might test, the panel was clear that any temporary building presents a chance to be bold and less risk-averse, especially when it comes to space and design.

No silver bullet

Closing the event, it was clear that any technological 'solutions' would need to be considered carefully. From online echo chambers to the digital divide, innovation is just one tool at Parliament's disposal.

Sense4us is a project funded from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (contract number 611242)

Latest / Highlights

News / Parliament Matters Bulletin: What’s coming up in Parliament this week? 5-9 January 2026

MPs will consider the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, while Peers debate the Diego Garcia, Sentencing, and Crime and Policing Bills. The Lords will also consider two Private Members’ Bills – to extend licensing hours and to legalise assisted dying – and will be asked to decide whether more time should be set aside in future for detailed scrutiny of the assisted dying legislation. In the Commons, MPs will debate mobile connectivity, Magnitsky-style sanctions for human rights abuses, and reform of high-street gambling, alongside a Conservative Opposition Day debate. On the Committee corridor, the Post Office Horizon scandal, disinformation diplomacy, the carbon budget, the policing of the Aston Villa – Maccabi Tel Aviv football match, and the BBC World Service will all be scrutinised.

News / The King and Parliament: The relationship between politics and the royals - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 122

In this episode we are joined by author and former royal correspondent Valentine Low to explore the evolving relationship between Downing Street and the Palace and why it matters for Parliament. Drawing on his book Power and the Palace, we explore how royal influence has shifted from Queen Victoria’s overt political interventions to Elizabeth II’s studied neutrality. Along the way, we connect historical episodes – where monarchs helped shape diplomacy and constitutional outcomes – to today’s flashpoints, from the prorogation and dissolution of Parliament to referendums and royal finances and the looming constitutional headaches of future hung parliaments.

News / Is being Prime Minister an impossible job? - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 121

Why do UK Prime Ministers seem to burn out so quickly? We are joined by historian Robert Saunders to examine why the role has become so punishing in recent years. From Brexit and COVID to fractured parties, rigid governing conventions and relentless media scrutiny, the discussion explores what has gone wrong – and what kind of leadership and political culture might be needed to make the job survivable again.

News / Choosing a new Lord Speaker: Peers question candidates Lord Forsyth and Baroness Bull - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 120

In this exclusive episode we bring you the full recording of the official hustings for the next Lord Speaker, held in the House of Lords and chaired by Hansard Society director and podcast co-host Ruth Fox. Peers question candidates Lord Forsyth and Baroness Bull on impartiality, self-regulation, public trust, governance and security, and the looming decisions on restoration and renewal – offering a rare insight into how the House chooses its presiding officer and the challenges facing Parliament at a critical moment.

News / 2024: The year our party system finally broke? - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 118

This week we spotlight our new book Britain Votes 2024, featuring research by leading political scientists such as public opinion expert Professor Sir John Curtice. We explore how Labour secured a landslide on just a third of the vote, why the election broke so many records, and what these reveal about the fragility of UK democracy. We also cover the Budget fallout, the role of the Treasury Committee in the appointment of the new head of the OBR, more backbench dissent, ex-MPs shifting to the Greens and Reform, and a brewing row over delayed mayoral elections.