House of Lords Departments
House of Lords play an important role in UK’s democratic political system as it is the Upper House or Senate of the UK Parliament. It takes part in making legislation, investigating public policy matters, and it also demands explanation from the government’s ministers on various decisions and issues. The members of the House hail from a range of diverse backgrounds and are well-versed in the roles and responsibilities of a modern, progressive, democratic and visionary government / state. The House has twelve departments performing various services including human resource management functions to media correspondence, records and archives management and financial management.
Instructions
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1
Clerk of the Parliaments’ office
Clerk of the Parliaments’ office is the senior-most official of the House and oversees its administration. Clerk of the Parliament also checks and confirms that the draft of the Acts are precisely written. -
2
Black Rod’s department
Maintains order, discipline and security in the House. -
3
Committee office
Committee office is another important department of the House which picks committees and probes public policy matters and various governmental decisions. It also gives legal and administrative advice to the committees. -
4
Department of Facilities
The department of facilities has property and office services along with catering and retail services.
Property and Office Services
It performs support services like stationery and photocopying, mail and cleaning work for the House of Lords' members and staff. It also helps in providing members’ accommodation and arranges meeting / banquet venues for them.
Catering and Retail Services
Catering and Retail Services helps in furnishing catering services to the members or guests of the house. Hundreds of events are held each year and the servings are catered by Catering and Retail Services. -
5
Finance Department
The finance department is responsible for the financial management and administration of the House. Some key areas are:
- Financial Reporting and advice
- Resource and cash management
- Disbursement of payments and accounting for receipts to the members, suppliers or staff of the House
- Contracts management and procurement -
6
Human Resources Office
It deals with personnel administration of the House and looks into matters ranging from recruiting, to salary and grading of the staff. -
7
Department of Information Services
Information Office, library and parliamentary archives are three offices working under the umbrella of Department of Information Services.
Information Office
It provides information to the press or media regarding the role of the House. Publications, online content, telephone and email queries are used as the modes of information dissemination.
Library
It supports the House in providing facts / figures, information and bibliographic resources that help in research.
Parliamentary Archives
It maintains a record or archive management service and provides public and members the access to archives. -
8
Journal Office
It records the journals of the house. It has two departments “Table Office” and “Printed Paper Office” working under it.
Table Office
Table office provides a venue to table oral or written questions to ministers.
Printed Paper Office
Printed Paper Office provides the members with documents, reports and copies of legislation to help them perform their work. -
9
Legislation Office
It further contains public and private bill office and the delegated legislation office. The public and private bill office coordinates public legislation and authorities while the Delegated Legislation Office checks the work of Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee and Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. -
10
Department of the Official Report (Hansard)
Department of the Official Report (Hansard) offers a record of the House’s proceedings. -
11
Overseas Office
It maintains relations between the House and foreign parliaments and also maintains a budget for four bodies. These bodies are British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, British-American Parliamentary Group and Inter-Parliamentary Union.
