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 61-80 out of 7894

UK trade, 1948-2017: statistics
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-8261
Statistics on UK trade, 1948-2017

Topic: International trade

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-8095
This House of Commons Library briefing explains what Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) are, their purpose and the process which is followed in order to authorise a deprivation of liberty. The paper outlines the Law Commission's recommendations to abolish DoLS and replace them with a new system called the Liberty Protection Safeguards. The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill was introduced to the House of Lords on 3 July 2018. The Bill broadly follows the Law Commission’s recommendations, with some changes.

Topics: Health services, Mental health, Patient rights and complaints

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Key Economic Indicators
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers SN02783
UK Gross Domestic Product: Regularly updated data on growth and forecasts.

Topic: Economic situation

ISIS/Daesh: what now for the military campaign in Iraq and Syria?
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-8248
ISIS has lost 98% of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria and in December 2017 the Iraqi government declared military victory over ISIS. The situation in Syria remains complex with operations to defeat ISIS complicated by the ongoing Syrian civil conflict. The Coalition has committed to maintaining its military commitments in Iraq and Syria. While tracking down remaining ISIS fighters remains a priority, the military campaign has, however, steadily begun to transition towards stabilisation, capacity building and training.

Topics: Armed forces, Defence policy, Iraq, Middle East, Military operations

Infrastructure policies and investment
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers SN06594
This note examines the current state of infrastructure in the UK, recent Government policies and levels and sources of investment.

Topic: Economic policy

Universal credit debates on Wednesday 11 July 2018
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Debate packs CDP-2018-0170
On 11 July 2018, there will be an Opposition Day debate on Universal Credit in the Commons Chamber.

Topics: Benefits administration, Benefits policy, Working age benefits

Nigeria: July 2018 update
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7897
President Muhammadu Buhari is now into the final year of his four-year term as president of Nigeria. Presidential and parliamentary elections must be held in 2019. Despite concerns in many quarters about his health, Buhari is standing again.

Topics: Africa, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Human rights, International economic relations, International politics and government, International trade, Terrorism

Manufacturing: Key Economic Indicators
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers SN05206
Manufacturing: Data on manufacturing jobs, output and producer confidence.

Topics: Economic situation, Manufacturing industries

Nuclear Sector Deal
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Debate packs CDP-2018-0175
This pack has been prepared ahead of the debate to be held in Westminster Hall on Wednesday 11 July 2018 at 9.30am on the Nuclear Sector Deal. The debate will be opened by Trudy Harrison MP.

Topics: Energy, Industry, Nuclear power

Service industries: Key Economic Indicators
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers SN02786
Service industries: Data for the sector that incorporates the retail sector, the financial sector, the public sector, business administration and cultural activities.

Topics: Economic situation, Service industries

Failures in the banking sector
Published Tuesday, July 10, 2018 | Commons Debate packs CDP-2018-0173
This Paper is background for a debate on possible future reforms to the way that small firms can seek redress in cases of poor practice against them by their banks.

Topics: Companies, Financial institutions, Insolvency, Small businesses

The UK's points-based system for immigration
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7662
Recent reforms to the UK's points-based system for work and study immigration have excluded doctors and nurses from the annual limit on the number of skilled worker visa sponsorships available. Wider-reaching changes to the system are expected when the Government implements a post-Brexit immigration policy.

Topic: Immigration

Corporate insolvency: consultations on reform
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-8291
The purpose of this Commons’ briefing paper is to consider in detail three BEIS consultations on insolvency and corporate governance.

Topic: Insolvency

Stalking: Developments in the law
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers SN06261
A Private Members' Bill with Government support aims to introduce new civil Stalking Protection Orders. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 was introduced to deal with stalking, but critics argued that it was not effective enough. Scotland introduced a specific offence of stalking in 2010, and England and Wales created two new specific offences in 2012. Northern Ireland still relies on the more general offence of harassment.

Topic: Criminal law

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018: scrutiny of secondary legislation (Schedule 7)
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-8329
This briefing paper reviews how proposals for negative statutory instruments made under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 will be scrutinised in the House of Commons.

Topics: EU institutions, Parliament, Parliamentary procedure

Small claims for personal injuries including whiplash
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers SN04141
This Commons Library briefing paper considers the Government's proposals to reform the whiplash claims process and to increase the small claims track limit for personal injury claims

Topics: Civil law, Courts, Financial services, Legal profession, Personal injury, Roads, Small claims

An early history of British race relations legislation
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-8360
This Library paper has been written to support the House of Commons ‘artist in residence’ project First Waves: Exploring the impact of race relations legislation in the UK. Scarlett Crawford has been commissioned by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art in the House of Commons to explore the impact of the 1965, 1968 and 1976 Race Relations Acts. This paper provides information on all three of these Acts. It explains their main provisions and looks at how they attempted to address racial discrimination in the UK.

Topics: Immigration, Racial discrimination

Parliamentary boundary reviews: public consultations
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7696
The four boundary commissions in the UK have to allow for various stages of public consultation during their general reviews of Parliamentary constituencies. These are summarised in this paper. Section 2 gives the dates of the various stages of the current review.

Topic: Elections

Lessons from the collapse of Carillion
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Debate packs CDP-2018-0177
There will be a debate on Lessons from the collapse of Carillion in the House of Commons on Thursday 12 July.

Topics: Companies, Insolvency, Pensions, Public administration, Regulation

A brief guide to previous British defence reviews
Published Monday, July 9, 2018 | Commons Briefing papers CBP-7313
This Commons Library paper provides a short guide to the main recommendations of the defence reviews that have taken place since the end of the Second World War, and whether those recommendations subsequently lived up to events.

Topics: Armed forces, Defence equipment and procurement, Defence policy, EU defence policy, Military operations

Displaying 61-80 out of 7894

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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