Emily for parliamentary staff: what a researcher or caseworker can ask the record
Emily is a research assistant over the official parliamentary record. She answers questions about Hansard, written and oral questions, bills, divisions, committee evidence and the transparency registers, and she attaches the source to every answer. If you work on the parliamentary estate with a parliament.uk address, she is free.
Written by Stephen Canning, who builds Emily. Last checked against the live record on 22 August 2026. Nothing on this page is model-generated.
Who this page is for
Researchers, parliamentary assistants, caseworkers and office managers working for an MP or a peer. You already have the Library, the search boxes on parliament.uk and TheyWorkForYou. Emily is for the questions that need three of those at once, asked in one sentence, answered with the sources attached so you can check her.
I built her for public affairs teams who pay for her. Parliamentary staff get her free, for a plain reason: Parliament is the record she is built on, and the people who use that record every day will find her gaps faster than anyone else. I want to hear about them.
What you can ask
Examples, not a feature list. Each one is a question she answers from the record she holds, with the Hansard column, the question number or the register entry linked underneath the answer.
Before a debate or a question
The questions that normally mean three browser tabs and the Library. Emily reads the record and shows you where each line came from.
- What has the minister said about pharmacy funding since January, and which written questions have been answered on it?
- Who spoke in the last three debates on the Renters’ Rights Bill, and what did each of them argue?
- Which amendments were tabled at committee stage, and which ones were withdrawn?
- Has anyone asked about this in the Lords, and what did the Government say?
Casework
She never sees your casework. She can tell you what the department has said in public, which is often the line you need before you write back.
- What has DWP answered on Personal Independence Payment assessment delays in the last six months?
- Is there a consultation open on this, and when does it close?
- What has the regulator published about this in the last month?
- Which written statements has the department made since the recess?
Members, votes and committees
Divisions with individual votes, committee memberships and the evidence they took.
- How did my Member vote on the last three divisions on this Bill?
- Which members of the Health and Social Care Committee have asked about this topic this session?
- Who gave oral evidence to the inquiry, and what did the chair ask them?
- Which committee reports are still waiting for a Government response?
The money trail
The transparency registers, joined up, with the official entry linked.
- Who has registered as a consultant lobbyist for this company, and which ministers did they meet?
- Which ministers met this organisation in the last year, and about what?
- What is on the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme public register for this country?
- What contracts has this supplier been awarded since 2024?
The day and the week
Live and forward business, so the office knows what is coming.
- What is happening in the Chamber today?
- What is coming up next week on housing?
- Which statutory instruments on this topic are laid and awaiting debate?
What Emily holds
All of it from the official sources, re-synced through the day, and every answer says what it searched, including the searches that found nothing.
- Hansard from both Houses, resolved to individual contributions, with the column linked.
- Written and oral questions, with the answers.
- Bills, with stage tracking, sponsors and amendments, and a free public bill tracker.
- Divisions with every individual vote.
- Committees: memberships, inquiries, oral-evidence transcripts and published reports, including which reports are awaiting a Government response.
- Early day motions, petitions, and forward and live business.
- The Scottish Parliament Official Report, its written questions and its bills.
- Publications from 44 UK regulators, departments and arm’s-length bodies, and GOV.UK press releases, consultations, speeches and statistics.
- Treaties laid under CRaG, with their scrutiny state.
- The transparency registers: donations, the consultant lobbying register, ministerial meetings, gifts and hospitality, members’ registered interests, ACOBA decisions, government contract awards, APPGs, and the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme public register.
What she does not hold
This is the part a guide page usually leaves out. Read it before you sign up.
- The Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Emily holds their members only. Their proceedings and bills are not searchable: the Senedd open-data feed was withdrawn without a replacement, and the Welsh and NI bill endpoints stopped returning data. If that is the record you need, she is not your tool yet, and I would rather say so here than have you find out after you have signed up.
- Your constituents. Nothing about a constituent is in Emily unless you type it, and she never connects to a casework system.
- Local council business. She covers the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Government, not town halls.
- Most of the press. She reads a defined set of public feeds and labels anything from the press as press, separately from the record. She does not read social media at all.
- Anything private. Her record is the public record. She is not a substitute for the House of Commons Library, and she is not a lawyer.
She will also get things wrong sometimes. That is why every answer carries its sources and why, when the record is silent, she says so instead of guessing. Treat her like a sharp new researcher on her first week: useful from day one, checked before it leaves the office.
Free access for parliamentary staff
Yes. Sign up with your parliament.uk address (parliament.scot, senedd.wales and niassembly.gov.uk count too). After you verify the address and finish setup you will meet a card page; you do not need to enter a card. I check the domain and switch the account to free access by hand, normally within one working day, and email you when it is done.
Free means the same product the paid plans get, with no card on file and no end date set. If that ever changes, you will hear it from me first, with notice. The eligible domains are parliament.uk, parliament.scot, senedd.wales, senedd.cymru, niassembly.gov.uk. Personal addresses do not qualify, because the domain is the only proof I have that you work there.
Self-serve sign-up is not open yet. Until it is, the link below takes you to the invite-only form and the waitlist; join it with your parliament.uk address and I will let you in as soon as sign-up opens.
Create an account with your parliament.uk addressQuestions, or a gap you have found: support@emilypolitics.com. I read every one.