Recommendation 12

There has been significant progress towards making the House of Commons a more welcoming and accommodating place for female MPs and those who are or want to be parents. But the House has work to do to fully understand and meet the needs and interests of women, parents and other groups, such as disabled people and those with long-term health conditions. We recommend the House of Commons Member Services Team conduct a survey of MPs, to gather and understand their personal experiences and views about current working practices, facilities and provision, and the need for further reform in the interests of gender and wider diversity sensitivity. The survey should gather MPs’ views on: • the adequacy of childcare provision at different times of the day and evening; • the adequacy of facilities including toilets and spaces for baby-changing, breast- feeding and expressing milk; • access rules, including the rules on MPs’ babies in the Chamber and in Westminster Hall; • the extent to which the facilities of the House of Commons meet the needs and interests of those who are disabled or have long-term health conditions; and • the House’s working practices and their effects on participation in House of Commons proceedings by parents, carers, disabled people and those with long- term health conditions. The results should be disaggregated by sex and other protected characteristics, so far as is consistent with protecting the anonymity of respondents. We recommend this survey be completed within three months of publication of this Report. The results should be fed into the House of Commons Commission’s gender sensitivity and diversity action plan, which we recommend at the end of this Report. (Paragraph 89) Equality in the heart of democracy: A gender sensitive House of Commons 47 Transforming culture and behaviour in the House of Commons