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UK Parliament

Online voting (2020)

Request

Recently there has been an online voting option for MPs provided as part of the hybrid parliament during the Covid19 crisis. Please can you provide the following information in line with FOI legislation?

  1. Was this service provided via a completely new web portal/app or was it additional functionality added to existing web portals/apps?
  2. Who, either government department or external supplier or both, was commissioned to add this service to parliamentary proceedings? i.e. who did the coding to make the portal or add functions to the existing portal?
  3. What budget lines did this activity come from?
  4. How much did this new online voting cost - it would be preferred if you could provide total budget but if that is not available then person-hours would be a good replacement.

 

Response

  1. Was this service provided via a completely new web portal/app or was it additional functionality added to existing web portals/apps
    This information is held by the House of Commons. This functionality was developed as an extension to the existing MemberHub site (which is used by MPs to table questions and motions) and as an extension to the existing system for electronic recording of the names of Members voting.
  2. Who, either government department or external supplier or both, was commissioned to add this service to parliamentary proceedings? i.e. who did the coding to make the portal or add functions to the existing portal
    This information is held by the House of Commons. This functionality was delivered by PDS working in partnership with the House of Commons. No third party development or management resource was used.
  3. What budget lines did this activity come from?
    This information is held by the House of Commons. The work was funded by a reprioritisation of the On-line Systems budget provision.
  4. How much did this new online voting cost - it would be preferred if you could provide total budget but if that is not available then person-hours would be a good replacement.
    This information is held by the House of Commons. House of Commons' information on the provision of remote voting, including development and hosting, records an approximate cost of £40,000 including VAT for the hosting costs.