Members of the eighth Speaker’s Conference announced

Membership of the Speaker’s Conference – established to look at the employment conditions of Members’ staff – has been announced following its first meeting on 19 October. The Conference, chaired by Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, will make recommendations on the contractual arrangements for the employment of MPs’ staff.

It is expected to produce its first report to the House by 31 October.

Conference members comprise Conservatives Sir Graham Brady, Tracey Crouch, Laura Farris, Andrew Jones, Mary Robinson, Mark Harper, Maria Miller and Paul Maynard, along with Labour MPs Florence Eshalomi, Wayne David, Clive Efford and Julie Elliott, the Liberal Democrat Wendy Chamberlain, and Marion Fellows for the SNP.

The meeting came after a resolution of the House was tabled in the Commons earlier this year calling for the Conference to be held. Mark Spencer, then leader of the House, said he wanted to ensure a more inclusive and respectful workplace.

There have been seven previous Speaker’s Conferences. The first was held in 1916 as part of an attempt to find a solution to wartime electoral registration and the franchise. The most recent was the 2008 to 2010 Conference on Parliamentary Representation, which considered the “disparity between the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons and their representation in the UK population at large”.