House of Commons Trends
This paper sets out key statistics about the House of Commons. The aim is to provide comparisons over time, though periods may vary according to relevance and the availability of consistent data. Some are for Parliamentary sessions, some by calendar year and some by financial year. This should be borne in mind when comparing different sets of information.
Statistics on the workings of the House of Commons, its Members and its staff are available from a number of sources, produced both by the Commons itself and by interested third parties and academics.
Sources of note include the resource accounts of the House of Commons and the statistical digests of each session which the House produces which are called the Sessional Returns. Outside of Parliament, scholarly work has also been conducted, focusing on a range of subjects including electoral matters but also in some cases providing statistics on other topics such as backbench rebellions, committees and House of Commons reform and efficacy.
House of Commons Trends focuses on the work of the House of Commons and is designed to bring together a range of existing statistical information about different aspects of the House into a single document. It provides a statistical summary which provides chronological depth as well as a breadth of subject coverage.
The data used to produce this paper comes both from existing Parliamentary publications and external sources.