Question

To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to the answer of 11 November 2025 to WPQ 87695, what plans the Commission has to improve the efficiency and workability of the IT system in the immediate future.

The House administration recognises that having effective and reliable digital services is vital for Members. It is also vital that these services, and changes to them, are delivered in a way which reflects the many demands and pressures of a Member’s role. The services must meet the needs of Members, and their staff, and help them respond to the needs of their constituents.

In coming months, such work includes improving network connectivity and roaming over Wi-Fi to support the Parliamentary community to access online services on the go, improving search.parliament.uk, and improving how the public can find, sign, and create petitions on petitions.parliament.uk.

With every rollout of new technology there will be things that don’t go perfectly and from which we can learn. Feedback on our digital services, and how we introduce change, is sought from Members. We make sure that feedback is understood and applied to drive improvements every quarter. A new way of proactively understanding the needs of Members has been introduced by the Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) to inform and shape changes to digital services. PDS has regular engagement with the Administration Committee to validate and prioritise the changes we are planning.

Based on Member feedback we are currently piloting a constituency telephony offering, eliminating location-based limitations so Members and their staff can make and receive calls seamlessly from a single system, regardless of where they work, and assessing alternative printing solutions for Westminster and constituency offices to identify options that deliver greater cost-effectiveness.