Question

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what preparations the House authorities have made to apply big data analytics to House and hon. Member activities.

Since the launch of data.parliament.uk in 2015 the Parliamentary Digital Service has continued to deliver improvements to the volume and quality of data about the House and hon. Member activities, with a view to publishing open data for both internal and external re-use and analysis via the new website.

The Parliamentary Digital Service has increased its expertise in working with data through new recruitment and development of existing staff. New techniques in data science are being investigated, for example machine learning, with support from colleagues in the Government Digital Service. Work is ongoing to ensure that data about Parliamentary activity is available for analysis, to help deliver internal efficiencies and to facilitate research by colleagues, in particular the House of Commons Library. To deliver the value from big data analytics it is critical that the underlying data structure schema are consistent and robust. The Parliamentary Digital Service continues to work on this key enabling data infrastructure.