Parliament week 2014: Cabinet Office events
Cabinet Office is participating in Parliament Week, a programme of events and activities that connect people with parliamentary democracy.
Parliament Week is coordinated by the House of Commons with support from the House of Lords. Cabinet Office is one of many organisations across the UK running events and activities throughout Parliament Week that explore what parliamentary democracy means to people and their communities.
We want to encourage more young people to be involved in politics and democracy. This may include registering to vote, making their voice heard in their local area, considering a career in the civil service, or learning more about how politics works. The more that young people are involved, the more they can positively impact the future of our country.
Monday 17 November
Open policy lab for young people
A presentation and practical workshop for young people aged 16 to 24 to discuss what the youth policy priorities should be over the next 5 years. The session will help the group identify current and future problems affecting young people and an opportunity to develop potential solutions. We will use the ideas generated on the day to help inform potential future priorities for youth policy.
Spending Challenge
The Spending Challenge is a fun, interactive, team-based activity for sixth form students to explore how government makes some of its most important decisions. Working in small teams, students will spend an afternoon playing the role of government ministers to decide on the most important issues facing the UK today.
Rock Enrol! day
Aimed at 16 to 19 year olds, this Rock Enrol! session aims to get young people involved in democracy and encourage them to register to vote. They will discuss what they care about, debate important issues and decide how the government should spend and save its money.
Rock Enrol! is a free learning resource that local councils, schools and youth groups can use to run their own democracy sessions. Rock Enrol! day is an interactive event that encourages young people to engage with democracy in a way that brings to life why they should register to vote.
Thursday 20 November
My Big Fat (Mini) Election
An election can often seem like a complicated and confusing process. This mini election session is an entertaining and interactive way to better understand and experience the process that determines who runs our country.
The mock election will take young people from the first all important step of registering to vote, to campaigning, right through to the actual vote and announcing a winner. Teams will form their own political parties, hear from other attendees who become ‘candidates’ and have their say at a polling booth.
What is democratic engagement?
The government wants to encourage under-represented groups to register to vote. This session will focus on what we are doing to improve this to make sure more people have their voices heard.
Democracy in action
Democracy in action aims to raise awareness of the ways in which young people can get involved in the democratic process. They will explore the wider concept of democratic engagement, opportunities for involvement and perceived barriers to participation.
This interactive session will provide an opportunity for young people to discuss ideas with policy makers, to challenge current perceptions, and make the democratic process more accessible to them.
Friday 21 November
Democratic engagement innovation projects
We have awarded grants several organisations to design tools and sessions to get under-represented groups engaged in democracy and wanting to register to vote. These organisations are to Mencap, Scottish Youth Parliament, Hansard/Homeless Link, Gingerbread and UK Youth.
The promoting democratic engagement event will explain the resources and encourage partner organisations to roll out and run sessions in schools, youth organisation and the community. Resources will be free to download from GOV.UK.
Lifecycle of a bill: demystifying the legislative process
This Good Law event will follow the lifecycle of a bill. It will give young people the chance to question lawyers, policy-makers and parliamentary drafters involved in a recent bill.
Attendees will also have the chance to play the ‘Legislate?!’ board game, which takes you on a journey from ‘bright idea’ to ‘law of the land’.
Register for Lifecycle of a bill.
Cabinet Office policy school: the next generation
This day long course for young people is similar to a 4 day course for civil servants. It features a variety of speakers explaining different perspectives on how to approach strategy and policy. It also tests attendees with a real policy challenge, which they must answer in a presentation to senior leaders.
The day provides a rapid view of the different ways civil servants, special advisors and ministers approach policy challenges and policy making.
Saturday 22 November
Good Law Hackathon
The Good Law Hackathon is about getting to grips with the statute book. It provides hackers with all the data they need to explore how the statute book works as a system, not just as individual pieces of legislation. We are encouraging hacks that measure or count the statute book in some way to create what will become an annual ‘census’ of the statute book. This hackathon will bring together computer programmers and others involved in software development, to collaborate on software projects.
The National Archives will be making a number of new datasets available for people to explore. These datasets will relate to legislation, such as texts, powers and duties and amendments.
Register for the Good Law Hackathon.