Research briefings

This page provides access to research briefings produced by the House of Commons Library, the House of Lords Library and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). You can filter the research briefings by date, type, or one of 350 topics. Pick your options from the dropdown menus.

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    Glossary

    • Commons Briefing papers: Papers providing in-depth and impartial analysis on every major piece of primary legislation and on other topics of public and parliamentary concern. Regular statistics papers are also published.
    • Lords Library Notes: Authored publications by the research section of the House of Lords Library that provide analysis of Bills, subjects for debate in the House and other issues of interest to Members.
    • POSTbriefs: Responsive policy briefings from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology based on mini-literature reviews and peer review, typically commissioned by select committees and library research services.
    • POSTnotes: Proactive four-page policy briefings from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology based on reviews of the research literature, interviews with stakeholders and peer review, commissioned by the POST Board.
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    Topics

    Topics: Research material can be filtered by subject using the topic terms. The topics are arranged in a taxonomy (a hierarchical classification) and can be further filtered using sub-topics.

Displaying 1-20 out of 6016

Increasing Diversity in STEM careers
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Debate packs CDP-2016-0014
Increasing diversity in STEM, Westminster Hall debate, 19 January 2015, 16:30 – 17:30

Topics: Employment, Research and innovation, Science

Counter-extremism policy in English schools
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7345
The duties on schools in England to safeguard children from extremism, and promote British values

Topics: Schools, Terrorism

The Psychoactive Substances Bill 2015-16: Report on Committee Stage
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7468
This briefing paper is produced prior to the Report Stage of the Psychoactive Substances Bill 2015-16.

Topics: Crime, Criminal law, Drugs crimes, Medicine, Prisons

Abolition of maintenance grants in England from 2016/17
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7258
The Summer Budget 2015 announced that grants would be replace with increased maintenance loans from 2016/17. This change could have an impact on efforts to widen participation in higher education and on long-term public finances.

Topics: Higher education, Students

Increases in the State Pension age for women born in the 1950s
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7405
Briefing for debate on 7 January 2016 - effect of the equalisation of the State Pension age on women

Topic: Pensions

Alcohol Guidelines in the United Kingdom
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Lords In Focus LIF-2016-0001
This Lords Library briefing examines the recently updated alcohol guidelines for the United Kingdom.

Topic: Health education and preventive medicine

NHS Winter Pressures 2015/16 - Weekly Update
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers SN07057
Weekly update on NHS winter pressures facing acute hospital trusts in England. Includes data for accident and emergency diverts, bed days lost to Norovirus closures and general and acute bed occupancy.

Topics: Ambulance services, Health services

NHS (Charitable Trusts Etc.) Bill
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7364
This House of Commons Library briefing paper provides information on the NHS (Charitable Trusts Etc.) Bill (Bill 11 2015-16).The Bill aims to reduce the Department of Health’s involvement in NHS charities (charities linked to NHS bodies). Specifically it makes provision for the removal of the Secretary of State’s long-standing powers to appoint trustees. The Bill also contains provisions to ensure that a new independent Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity can receive royalties in relation to performances or publications of the play Peter Pan (JM Barrie gave the hospital rights to the royalties in 1929).

Topics: Health finance, Health services

Unemployment - International Comparisons: Key Economic Indicators
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers SN02800
Unemployment: International Comparisons: Data on harmonised unemployment rates for major international economies.

Topics: Economic situation, International economic relations, Unemployment

Interest Rates and Monetary Policy: Key Economic Indicators
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers SN02802
Interest Rates and Monetary Policy: Data on interest rates from the UK, eurozone and the US; a summary of the Bank of England’s and international, quantitative easing policy.

Topics: Economic policy, Economic situation

Removal of drugs from Cancer Drugs Fund list
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Debate packs CDP-2016-0009
There will be a debate on the Removal of drugs from Cancer Drugs Fund list on Tuesday 19 January 2016 at 2.30pm in Westminster Hall . Pauline Latham MP will lead the debate. This Library briefing provides a summary of the issues and some media and parliamentary coverage.

Topics: Diseases, Health finance, Medicine

University Technical Colleges
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7250
This House of Commons Library briefing discusses the origin, progress and future of University Technical Colleges - technical schools for 14-19 year olds, working alongside employers and universities in England, introduced under the Coalition Government

Topics: Further education, Schools

Financial Indicators: Key Economic Indicators
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers SN05207
Financial Indicators: Data from FTSE100, as well as oil prices and gold prices.

Topic: Economic situation

Access to Justice for Vulnerable People
Published Friday, January 15, 2016 | Commons Debate packs CDP-2016-0013
A Westminster Hall debate on access to justice for vulnerable people has been scheduled for Tuesday 19 January 2016 at 0930hrs. The Member in charge of the debate is Stephen Kinnock.

Topic: Legal aid

Measuring Performance for the Carbon Budgets
Published Thursday, January 14, 2016 | POSTbriefs POST-PB-0017
Part 6 of the Energy Bill 2015-16 proposes an amendment to the Climate Change Act to adjust the performance measure used in the UK’s statutory carbon budgets. The new measure would include UK territorial emissions only. With this change, credits or debits from the EU Emissions Trading System would not contribute towards the UK’s performance against its carbon budgets from 2028 onwards. This POSTbrief introduces the carbon budgets, explains the proposed change and outlines the implications of the proposed change.

Topics: Climate change, Coal, Electricity, Energy, Energy conservation, Fuel poverty, Nuclear power, Oil, petrol and natural gas, Renewable energy

Oil Prices
Published Thursday, January 14, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers SN02106
This Commons briefing paper sets out a review of oil price trends and an outlook for oil prices to 2040.

Topics: Energy, Iraq, Oil, petrol and natural gas, Roads

The Energy Bill 2015-16: Background and changes in the Lords
Published Thursday, January 14, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7466
The Energy Bill 2015-16 has been debated and Amended in the House of Lords. This paper provides a summary of those changes along with relevant background information for its debate in the House of Commons.

Topics: Climate change, Energy, Oil, petrol and natural gas, Planning, Renewable energy

Regional and National Economic Indicators
Published Thursday, January 14, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers SN06924
Data summarising the economic situation in the regions and countries of the UK

Topic: Economic situation

Personal service companies : recent debate
Published Thursday, January 14, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers SN05976
The 'IR35' rules to prevent the exploitation of personal service companies for tax avoidance were introduced in April 2000, following a long and contentious consultation exercise. This legislation remains unpopular among freelancers who use this corporate form to provide services. This note looks at recent debate on how these rules might be reformed and wider concerns about the use of employment intermediaries to avoid tax.

Topics: National insurance, Taxation

Litigants in person: the rise of the self-represented litigant in civil and family cases in England and Wales
Published Thursday, January 14, 2016 | Commons Briefing papers SN07113
The available evidence indicates that the proportion of litigants appearing before the civil and family courts in England and Wales without legal representation (litigants in person, also sometimes called self-represented litigants) has increased since the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 took many civil and private law children and family cases out of scope for legal aid from 1 April 2013. What does this mean, both for the litigants and for the courts?

Topics: Civil law, Courts, Family law, Legal aid

Displaying 1-20 out of 6016

About libraries

House of Commons Library

The House of Commons Library provides research, analysis and information services for MPs and their staff.

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The House of Lords Library delivers research and information services to Members and staff of the House in support of parliamentary business.

POST

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology produces independent, balanced and accessible briefings on public policy issues related to science and technology.

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