Indexing and Data Management Section

What do we do?

Subject indexing

We subject index parliamentary business of the Commons and the Lords, supporting researchers and others to find what they need.

Taxonomy services

We maintain a controlled vocabulary to cover the business of both Houses. The vocabulary is emergent from parliamentary business. We consult with colleagues across Parliament, making best use of their procedural and subject matter expertise.

Procedural data management

We have domain expertise. The team understands parliamentary procedure across both Houses. We adapt our information management as business practice and procedure changes.

Member data management

We look after the central database for Members of the House of Commons - keeping it up to date with new starters and leavers, contact details, party affiliation changes, as well as changes to the machinery of government. We collaborate with the History of Parliament Trust on a database covering the social background of MPs since 1832, and another covering peerages in the Kingdoms of England, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom from 1603 to the present day.

Data integration and data cleaning

We tie together information from disparate procedural systems. We make links in data that reflect how parliamentary business actually happened.

Data modelling

We document parliamentary procedures. We work with internal and external domain experts and colleagues in the Digital Service to design data models that reflect the complexities of Parliament.

We publish weeknotes on an irregular basis.

Find our work

We publish our domain models at UK Parliament Ontologies. We manage data for the following services:

Search Parliamentary Material

A service in which people can search for parliamentary business and research briefings, from both Houses, indexed by IDMS, in one place.

Parliamentary Search

Currently in development, a replacement for Search Parliamentary Material.

UK Parliament thesaurus

The thesaurus supports indexing by providing information about the terms, and the terms around them. We include terms relating to any subject discussed by Parliament, along with many procedural terms.

Treaty tracker 

Treaties are international agreements between states. Find and follow the progress of treaties laid before Parliament.

Statutory instrument service

Statutory instruments (SIs) are the most common form of secondary legislation. Find and follow the progress of SIs laid before Parliament.

Written questions

Written questions allow MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask for information on the work, policy and activities of Government departments, related bodies, and the administration of Parliament.

Members of the House of Commons

Information on current and former Members of the House of Commons.

Election Results

A website by the House of Commons Library providing election results data for the UK House of Commons.

Parliament: Facts and figures

The ‘Parliament: Facts and figures’ series covers topics including elections, government, legislation, Members and parliamentary business.

Egg timer

Certain papers laid before Parliament - such as statutory instruments and treaties - are subject to scrutiny periods. This is the period of time during which each House can approve or annul. The end date depends on the sittings of either House. The egg-timer provides a calculation of these periods.

We also work with the History of Parliament Trust on Members of Parliament after 1832 and on Peerages.