In the past two weeks, we ranked the most active policymakers in terms of policy activity and social media presence. This time we highlight the most important events and policy activities during each day of the past week. We have selected the most important activity to highlight per day.

Summary of policy activity in the UK Parliament

In the past week, the Policy-Insider.AI platform identified 7,225 policy documents, which indiciates high policy activity in the UK Parliament. On Monday, the platform registered the highest number of policy documents, reaching 1946 records. On Friday, the number was the lowest, with 546 documents. Four of the most discussed policy areas were health policy, home affairs, finance and transportation.

Summary of social media activity

The most popular UK politicians on Twitter also proved the most active in the past week. Dr Liam Fox posted 418 Tweets on his profile, which makes him the most active. Claire Fox tweeted 331 times, only one more time than Viscount Ridley. Some of the most popular hashtags were #DownSyndromeBill or #PMQs. Members of the Labour party published 8,394 tweets, while politicians from the Conservative party published 5,838 tweets. On average, British policymakers tweeted 2,640 times per day in the past week.

Monday & Tuesday

On Monday, 22.11, the Members of the House of Commons discussed the Health and Care Bill. The Bill was initially introduced in the Commons on July 6. During the session, the MPs voted on a series of questions. The debate was subsequently extended to Tuesday. The Bill had been read for the third time and passed on to the House of Lords. According to the Royal College of General Practitioners, “the Bill places integrated care systems (ICSs) on a statutory footing to make them accountable for commissioning and delivering services to the patients in their footprint.” Moreover, as a result of the Bill, NHS England will have a duty to collaborate with local authorities. The Bill also provides new powers to the Health Secretary when healthcare services require reconfiguration.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, the policy activity in the UK Parliament was relatively high. However, the Prime Minister Questions session gained the most attention. The PMQs are part of a weekly session in the Commons every Wednesday. During the question session, Chris Bryant asked Boris Johnson whether he supports the Acquired Brain Injury Bill. When asked about the increased floodings, the Prime Minister mentioned the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which will be the biggest super-sewer in the UK. The Prime Minister also mentioned the Start4Life programme, which will be rolled out across the UK. Nevertheless, the confrontation about the housing policy proved the most controversial.

“At the last election, the Prime Minister promised that nobody would have to sell their home to pay for care. That is another broken promise, isn’t it?”

Keir Starmer

“No, because if the right hon. and learned Gentleman looked at what we are proposing and if he supported what we are proposing—it is fixing something that Labour never fixed in all its years in office. We are saying to the people of this country that we will disregard their home as part of their assets if they and their spouse are living in it.”

Boris Johnson

Thursday

The recent death of over 30 immigrants headed for the UK via the English Channel, prompted to the House of Lords to discuss illegal migration on Thursday. In particular, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle highlighted the statement of Lord Kerr of Kinlochard in one of her tweets.

“Unless we provide a safe route, we are complicit with the people smugglers. Yes, we can condemn their case and we mourn yesterday’s dead, but that does not seem to stop us planning to break with the refugee convention. Our compassion is well controlled because it does not stop us planning, in the borders Bill, to criminalise those who survive the peril of the seas and those at Dover who try to help them. Of course, we can go down that road. But if we do, let us at least be honest enough to admit that what drives us down that road is sheer political prejudice, not the facts, because the facts do not support the case for cruelty.”

Lord Kerr of Kinlochard

The House of Lords will further debate on the subject of migration while considering the Nationality and Borders Bill, which is currently at the Report Stage in the House of Commons.

Friday

Friday was the least active when it comes to policy activity in the UK Parliament. Nevertheless, the Members of Parliament discussed an important bill that caused a lot of interest on social media. The Down Syndrome Bill aims to put more pressure on local authorities to reevaluate and facilitate the social care provisions for people with Down syndrome. According to Dr Fox, if the bill is agreed on by the World Down Syndrome Day on 21 March, the UK will be the first country to produce legislation specifically on this problem.

Find out more about the most recent trends in UK politics by using our Twitter trends tracker or read the last week’s UK Digest.

This article was originally published in English. Translations have been generated automatically and may be incorrect.