As Director of Research, Anna is committed to ensuring the House of Commons’ research team continues to produce briefings and data of the highest quality, supporting Members of Parliament (MPs) to perform their role in the House and in their constituencies.
Impartial, evidence-based information
One of the key functions of Anna’s department is providing briefing papers for MPs in advance of every House of Commons debate.
“We look at each topic from different angles, synthesising and drawing the information together in a concise form. Impartiality is key here – MPs from all parties use our briefings and trust us to provide politically impartial, evidence-based, accurate briefings.”
The team also runs a confidential bespoke request service through which MPs can ask for information about specific topics, as well as providing constituency-specific data.
“What makes the job fulfilling is seeing our research being read and used by MPs in the Chamber. Our publications are also available on our public-facing website, and some of our briefing papers have had more than 30,000 views, so for some topics there’s a lot of wider interest.”
The fact that our services are in high demand and have a really good reputation makes me proud to do this job, and makes it important to maintain and improve the quality of our services.
Dr Anna Dickson, PhD Politics and International Relations, 1991; Director of Research, House of Commons.
From academia to Parliament
During her PhD, Anna honed the research skills that would be the foundation of her future career. Her time at Southampton also gave her a flavour of academic life, which influenced her next move – she became a lecturer, going on to teach politics and international relations at the Universities of Sussex and Durham for 13 years.
“Having the opportunity to teach undergraduates while at Southampton gave me a better understanding of what being a lecturer might be like. I was also a sub-warden at one of the halls of residence, a pastoral role that was helpful preparation for supporting students as an academic.”
A desire to move into a more policy-focused role, and an opportunity to pursue her long-held interest in international development, put her on the path to her current role.
“In 2004 I got a job as advisor to the International Development Committee at the House of Commons. This brought some amazing opportunities to travel with the Committee to evaluate programmes run by the Department for International Development (as it was then), in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Nepal.”
Ensuring the highest quality
While the House of Commons research function is already highly regarded by its users, continuous improvement is at the top of Anna’s agenda.
“I’ve never written anything that couldn’t be improved by someone else looking at it. We have a rigorous peer review process in our teams. I’m currently trialling a new process of post-publication review of our papers to identify trends and areas for improvement. It’s important to maintain and improve the quality of what we do, because ultimately our job is to provide the research services MPs need to make democracy happen.”
Anna is also introducing subject-specific hubs to bring together policy specialists from her own team and those from Select Committees. The idea is to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing, improve efficiencies and service delivery, and create more career progression opportunities for staff.
Lead image credit: parliament.uk. See attribution license.