Full Fact's suggestions for digital democracy

27 January 2015

The Commission on Digital Democracy, set up by the Speaker of the House of Commons, published a report yesterday which makes recommendations about how technology can be used to make the workings of Parliament more understandable.

Full Fact submitted evidence to the Commission suggesting a number of ways to boost public engagement. These included a corrections column for backbench MPs, more transparency about select committees, and a way to make changes to proposed laws less incomprehensible.

That last point went into the final report:

"Full Fact said that a plain language description of what each amendment does should be published alongside the amendments to help the public understand what MPs are voting on. This is already done for some amendments but is not compulsory and we hope to see it quickly become the norm."

Our full evidence is here. In keeping with the aims of the Commission on Digital Democracy, it's short and to the point.

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Bad information ruins lives. It promotes hate, damages people’s health, and hurts democracy. You deserve better.