By 2020, Parliament should be fully interactive and digital.

[robertbrook]

The House should experiment with new ways for the public to: • put forward questions for ministers (Recommendation 19), and • contribute to different stages of the law-making process, primarily by digital means. (Recommendation 17)

[robertbrook]

Select committees should make greater use of social media and online advertising to reach out to new audiences and raise awareness of their work. They should also experiment with using digital to involve people more in committee work. (Recommendation 16)

[robertbrook]

Parliament should step up its work to build links with community organisations and services to help ensure that the digitally excluded are given local support to engage with Parliament online. (Recommendation 20)

[robertbrook]

As part of its new, professional communications strategy the House of Commons should, in 2015-16, pilot and test new online activities, working with national and local partners, to target and engage specific groups who are not currently engaged in the democratic process. These target groups could include, for example: 18-25 year olds not at university, people with learning difficulties, homeless people and people living in communities with very low voter turnout. (Recommendation 12)

[robertbrook]

The House of Commons should take further steps to improve active involvement by young people. This might include: • encouraging young people to participate in the e-petitions system, and • youth issue-focused debates which involve young people and MPs. (Recommendation 13)

[robertbrook]

The Digital Democracy Commission recommends that Parliament should seize the opportunity that restoration and renewal work provides to improve facilities to assist MPs in their work for the public and ensure the fabric of Parliament is fit for the future. (Recommendation 28)

[robertbrook]

The new parliamentary digital service should identify tools to help increase the volume and quality of interaction between MPs and their constituents. It should involve MPs and constituents in the development of these tools to ensure that an increase in communications is manageable by everyone involved. (Recommendation 14)

[robertbrook]

The Commission acknowledges the work on cyber harassment and security that has been conducted by others, but recommends that: • the political parties urgently review what measures they have in place to support candidates at the next General Election who may be subjected to abuse of digital technology in the form of cyber harassment; • the House urgently reviews measures to support MPs subject to cyber harassment; • this review is carried out in tandem with the ongoing work regarding improving cyber-security to ensure that MPs can carry out their duties effectively, efficiently and in the sure knowledge that the confidentiality of their constituents is protected. (Recommendation 15)

[robertbrook]

During the next session of Parliament the House of Commons should move to record votes using MPs’ smart identity cards but retain the tradition of walking through division lobbies. (Recommendation 29). It should also pilot an electronic version of the practice of ‘nodding through’ MPs who are physically unable to go through the division lobbies, which would enable MPs who are unwell, or have childcare responsibilities, or a disability, to vote away from the chamber. (Recommendation 30)

[robertbrook]

Parliament, working with the Government and other stakeholders, should introduce, by the end of 2016, a new set of online tools for drafting, amending and publishing legislation which are easier to use, and provide open data about bills and amendments. (Recommendation 6)

[robertbrook]

The House of Commons should identify more areas where a digital-first approach can lead to service improvements as well as increased efficiency. (Recommendation 27)

[robertbrook]

By the end of 2015, Parliament should have in place a strategy to ensure that it has the skills it needs to meet the target of being digital and interactive by 2020. The strategy must ensure that the Head of Digital has sufficient means to recruit and retain staff with the specialist digital skills that Parliament needs. (Recommendation 33)