HMRC has supplied us with the latest guidance on Tax and National Insurance contributions for MPs and Ministers. This guide is to help MPs and Ministers’ with their own personal Tax and National Insurance only; it is not a guide for constituent casework. If MPs and Ministers would like a copy of this document, please contact us and we will send one via email.  Please note that we will only send this to @parliament email addresses.

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. Measuring Performance for the Carbon…

The next three constituency events will be in Birmingham on 2nd February and Swansea on 9th February and are open to constituency staff. To book your place please email constituencystaffopenday@parliament.uk at least a week before each event (preferably earlier). Full details here.

The new Serjeant  at Arms will be Mohammed Amal (Kamal) El-Hajji, who is currently Head of Front of House and VIP Relations at the Ministry of Justice. He will take over from Bob Twigger, who has been acting Serjeant at Arms since Lawrence War’s retirement last September. Described in The Times as ‘a philosophy-loving Moroccan with a black belt in karate’,  Kamal told Commons Monthly “I am deeply honoured and privileged to be selected for this historic role, which dates from 1415. I look forward to taking up duty…

The Hotlines List was updated on 17 December 2015. As always, please ensure that you are using the current version of the hotlines list on the intranet, as copies saved to your computer may be out of date. Please go here to see the new information.

The Institute For Government has released a new archive of interviews with former government ministers. The project, Ministers Reflect, publishes interviews of ministers describing what their work is like – what the challenges are, how they make themselves most effective, and what more is needed to help them work productively towards their policy objectives. The Institute For Government aims to demystify for the public the roles and duties of ministers, in this way ‘promoting effective political leadership’ and helping the government function more effectively. The archive currently…

During the Christmas recess there will be changes to entrance opening times, and on New Year’s Eve access for pedestrians and vehicles will be restricted from 2pm. The full details of which entrances are open and when can be found in the note just published on the Intranet – read it here.

The latest version of the Members’ Personal Safety Leaflet is now available on the intranet. This is not just for Members; it’s vital that their staff read it as well. W4MP can’t emphasise strongly enough the importance of your reading this and taking appropriate action. This 7-page leaflet provides detailed information for Members on personal safety and that of family and staff.  

The Electoral Reform Society is calling on people to write to their MP calling for the extension of the franchise to 16/17 year olds in the EU referendum. Here’s the email – you might see some correspondence as a result. EMAIL FROM ELECTORAL REFORM SOCIETY On Tuesday, MPs will decide whether to give 16 and 17 year olds a vote in the upcoming EU referendum. The Scottish independence referendum showed once and for all that 16 and 17 year olds are more than capable of…