Welcome to the UK Parliament

If this is your first visit to the site, we have an About this Site page to help you further. If you have any enquiries, comments, suggestions or other feedback, please use our Contact Us page.

If you require information about the Government, rather than Parliament, please use www.ukonline.gov.uk. Further information for Understanding Parliament is set out below. The Explore Parliament site provides resources for teachers and students.

Other links on this page include Recruitment Information and our Postal Address

Web Content Manager

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News About Parliament

Recess Information
The House of Commons and the House of Lords have risen for the Christmas Recess.  They will return on the 5 January 2004.

Click on the following links for information about the forthcoming business in the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Further recess information may be obtained from our Recess web page.

Sandwich Student Placements
The House of Commons Service is offering four placements in the academic year 2004/05 for Sandwich course students.

The placements are in the Library Department, the Finance and Administration Department, the Department of the Clerk and the Parliamentary Works Services Directorate. Further information and related application forms are available from the Sandwich Student Placements web page.

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Private Members' Bills
The ballot for Private Members' Bill for this session of Parliament 2003-04 took place on Thursday 4 December 2003 (2nd sitting Thursday of the session). See the Frequently Asked Questions : Private Member's Ballot page for a list of Members who were successful in the ballot.

The Bills will be presented on Wednesday 7 January 2004 (5th sitting Wednesday of the session).

Private Bills (Local and Personal Bills)
Four new private bills will, if they successfully pass a preliminary stage, be introduced in January 2004.  Anyone who is directly and specially affected by one of them will be able, if they petition against the bill, to have their views heard by a Select Committee. See the Private Bills before Parliament page.

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Understanding Parliament

The UK Parliament is based on a two chamber system. The House of Lords and the House of Commons sit separately, and are constituted on different principles. However, the legislative process involves both Houses.

Parliament has three main functions:

• to examine proposals for new laws;
  

• to scrutinise government policy and administration;
  
• to debate the major issues of the day.

On this website you can find out about the work of the two Houses, their members and their committees, as well as accessing contact details and publications. You can find further information on the How Parliament Works page and on the What do we mean by Parliament? FAQ page.

If you are looking for information about the devolved legislatures in the UK, please click here for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Recruitment Information

There is also a web page that sets out information about  Job Opportunities in Parliament

Postal Address

House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW

Switchboard telephone number: 020 7219 3000

Other contact information is available on our Directory of MPs, Peers & Offices page.