20 September 2011
Parliament Week is a new, national initiative supported by a range of organisations from museums and galleries to the Hansard Scoiety and BBC which will run from the 31st October to 6th November 2011. The aim of the week is to raise awareness about the role of Parliament and encourage a greater level of engagement with democracy in the UK.

The theme for this year is 'Stories of Democracy' - from the past to the present, from local to national. There are activities and events across the country, including 'Picturing Democracy', a national photography project that encourages people to take a picture that commemorates an historical event or person that contributed to the development of democracy, or an image that represents a modern story of democracy in the UK.
More details can be found at www.flickr.com/groups/picturingdemocracy

Parliament Week is an exciting opportunity to explore the work and role of Parliament and could be particularly helpful in encouraging students to understand how decisions made in Westminster impact on their lives.

One of the most inspiring events of the week will be the sitting of the UK Youth Parliament in the House of Commons Chamber on Friday 4 November. For the first time the BBC Parliament Channel will be showing the session live so that schools and pupils nationwide can follow the debate. The sitting is from 11.00am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm – 2.30pm. More details can be found on the UK Youth Parliament website http://www.ukyp.org.uk/ where pupils can also vote (until 16th Oct) for the topics to be debated.

The Hansard Society is also hosting a special evening event in Parliament on Monday 31st Oct to encourage young people to put their questions to a cross-party panel of MPs, chaired by Krishnan Guru-Murthy (Channel 4 News). The event is free to attend and open to all young people.
If you are interested in attending you can register at http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/ or phone 020 7438 1216.

Details of all forthcoming events can be found at www.parliamentweek.org