Select committees currently accepting written evidence (compiled 4 June 2025)

Please click the title of any inquiry listed below to be taken to a summary of that inquiry and the full call for evidence. Remember that you don’t have to answer every question posed in each call for evidence.

New calls for evidence:

All other inquiries currently accepting written evidence:

Why should I engage? Submitting evidence to a select committee can lead to further engagement, such as an invitation to give oral evidence. Your submission will be published on the Committee webpage. Your insights may inform the Committee’s conclusions or recommendations it makes to the Government. Find out more about why to engage with Parliament here. And find more on engagement for impact here.

More information: all inquiries currently accepting evidence are found here  
Guidance on submitting evidence to Commons select committees
Guidance on submitting evidence to Lords select committees

Finance Specialist Advisor Role

The House of Lords Finance Bill Sub-Committee is seeking a specialist adviser to support their scrutiny work.

The sub-committee is a subsidiary of the Economic Affairs Committee which reviews and reports on the draft Finance Bill during July and December. The specialist adviser will:

  • Review the clauses of the draft Finance Bill on publication and help identify appropriate matters for scrutiny in a scoping note (typically expected in July / August each year)
  • Advise on the preparation and drafting of a call for evidence
  • Advise on external stakeholders and contacts that may support the sub-committee’s work
  • Advise on suitable witnesses for seminars and inquiries
  • Support the preparation of draft questions and briefings for evidence sessions
  • Attend sub-committee meetings as required to assist deliberations
  • Contribute to drafting reports 
  • Undertake other work to assist the sub-committee as required

The sub-committee focuses only on technical issues of tax administration, clarification and simplification. The successful candidate will have in-depth knowledge and experience of these areas, and the ability to advise on these and related issues in a clear and concise manner. The specialist adviser must be incisive, articulate and able to work at pace to tight deadlines. They must also observe impartiality in the advice they offer. 

The role is part-time (usually a maximum of two days per week) and remunerated at £375 per day. Specialist advisers usually manage the role alongside their substantive (main) job.

More information

Apply
Send a CV and short covering letter setting out your suitability for the post to the Finance Bill Sub-Committee by Wednesday 25 June 2025, 12:00.
Interviews will likely be held in the week commencing 7 July. 

Why should I engage?
Being a special adviser provides a great opportunity to work closely with a committee, informing its work and approach to an inquiry – such as inquiry focus, selection of oral witnesses, and report development and conclusions.

More information

Fellowship Opportunity – Royal Society of Chemistry

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is offering a funded (3 month*) parliamentary fellowship to RSC members** who are undertaking or have recently finished their PhD study. 

The successful applicant will be based in the UK Parliament, supporting its use of research evidence. Most fellows assist the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) to provide briefing material for parliamentarians on emerging science topics. The fellowship may include: 

  • Producing a POSTnote or POSTbrief (briefing documents to help inform the work of MPs and peers) or contributing to a longer briefing report.
  • Assisting a select committee in an ongoing inquiry.
  • Organising a seminar to inform or disseminate research.

PhD Fellows will also have the opportunity to interact closely with a range of people and activities in the two Houses of Parliament, including select committees, MPs and peers and their support services. They can attend ‘All-Party Parliamentary Group’ meetings and participate in a wide range of other activities at the Palace of Westminster.

*The fellowship can be carried out full-time for 13 weeks or part-time over a longer period. The successful applicant will be expected to start their fellowship between January 2026 and October 2026. The exact start date will be agreed between the successful applicant, POST, and the applicant’s supervisor.

** If you are not already a member of the RSC, you can apply to join prior to submitting your Fellowship application. Apply at least one week before you plan to submit your fellowship application. 

To download the application pack or for more details of the fellowship, including eligibility, view the information on POST’s webpage. The deadline to apply is 13 July 2025.

New flurry of internships!

Please share this invaluable opportunity widely with the PhD students in your organisation. 

UK Parliament has launched their new set of fellowships through the Policy Internships scheme, funded by UKRI. The scheme provides the opportunity for doctoral students funded by the research councils of UKRI to work for three months within a host policy organisation, such as UK Parliament. Applicants specify their preferred host organisation when they apply for the internship.

In UK Parliament there are multiple internship opportunities available. Applicants can work within:

  • POST (the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology) 
  • a select committee
  • the House of Commons or House of Lords Libraries

An online information session about the UK Parliament based internships will be held on Thursday 3 July. Email post@parliament.uk if you wish to attend. 

Internships are usually undertaken full time across three months, however, alternative working patterns may be available. All internships will take place during 2026. The precise start date will be agreed with each successful applicant and their supervisor.

Information specific to POST internships
The successful candidates for the internships based in POST will produce a POSTnote or POSTbrief. These are impartial and balanced publications which inform parliamentarians and parliamentary staff about cutting edge research or policy matters.

POST is committed to equality of opportunity and will make reasonable adjustments to ensure that prospective applicants are not excluded from this opportunity. If you require an adjustment please discuss this with POST at an early stage. 

POST is bicameral and strictly non-partisan. The successful applicants will need to abstain from any political activity for the duration of their internship and to uphold the principles of parliamentary service, including impartiality and confidentiality.

More information

The deadline to apply is 8 September 2025.

Interviews (for the UK Parliament hosted internships) will be held online from 6 October onwards.  

Why should I engage? An internship/fellowship in UK Parliament offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to view the epicentre of policy-making from the inside. By the end of their time at POST, fellows/interns learn how to write for policy with balance and impartiality. They also develop a unique understanding of Westminster and forge important relationships with key stakeholders, while often delving into a novel and exciting topic of research. Find out more about what a POST fellowship is like and the opportunities it can lead to. 

More information: Find out more about POST fellowships. Watch an interview with a previous POST fellow. Explore POST’s work on their webpage. 

There’s still time…

The below opportunities to engage are still open:

Tourism, cultural and heritage expert call  *final opportunity*
This call closes at midnight tonight (Thurs 5 June).
The UK Parliament’s Restoration and Renewal team are calling for experts in cultural, heritage and tourism to share their research to contextualise and enrich the decision-making process as different options for restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster are considered. The team is seeking research on the value of cultural and heritage institutions, and recognises that not all societal benefits need to, or can, be meaningfully monetised. They’d love to hear from experts with research insights on the following:

  • Understanding the value of cultural and heritage institutions (including cultural and social value, and non-economic measures)
  • Measuring the tourism value of cultural and heritage institutions
  • The cultural, social, heritage and/or tourism value of the Palace of Westminster
  • Any other relevant research

Complete this form to share your insights with the R&R programme by midnight on Thursday 5 June.

Multifunctional land use POSTnote: Contribute to the POSTnote on Multifunctional land use decisions: what roles could collaborative governance models play? by sharing your expertise and research via this form. Deadline: Wednesday 11 June 

Engineering Fellowship: The Ashok Kumar fellowship offers engineering masters or doctoral students (or recent completers) the opportunity to apply for a funded fellowship in POST preparing briefing materials for parliamentarians on emerging science topics. Full details are available here. Deadline: 29 June 2025.

What did the Lord say to the Primate?

You’ll likely know that parliamentarians of both Houses must address each other with the correct convention whilst in the chamber. The rules aim for cohesion in the chamber and maintain a focus on the business by ensuring the polite protocols are followed. In the House of Lords, the peers observe different forms of address depending on the title of who they are referring to, including the Lords Spiritual. When a peer refers to an archbishop, they refer to them as ‘the most reverend primate’, for a bishop it’s ‘the right reverend prelate’. 

So what?
Protocols and correct forms of address are expected to be observed when an external researcher approaches a parliamentarian. Do you know your ‘Rt Hon’ from your ‘Professor, the Lord…’? Where do ‘Sir’ or ‘Dame’ sit in the title list? Are you familiar with which members prefer to be addressed simply as ‘Lord’ or ‘Baroness’ rather than their full title? And what about their post-nominal letters such as ‘DBE’ – should you include them? It’s a complex endeavour.

So, how do you find out how to address a member and avoid an embarrassing blunder? Fear not, we’ve got your back, and it’s quicker than reading this fact!

To find out the correct form of address for an MP or peer, search their name using the below links:

The search will bring back lots of interesting information on the parliamentarian and at the very top of the page, in the green (MP) or red (peer) banner, it will state their full title. For MPs there will even be a statement ‘when contacting this Member, they should be addressed as…’.

In the House of Lords, only the full title is displayed and there’s a handy guide which explains how to address the beginning and end of your letter/email, and what to write on the envelope, avoiding the gaffe of addressing a Duke as ‘Lord’. 

So now you know, you don’t need to refer to the Archbishop as ‘primate’ when corresponding.

More information: