The Data
This database provides basic information about the political and social background of Members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom elected from the general election of 1832 to the gpresent day. Information on Members before 1832 is available from the History of Parliament's main website. The database has been compiled from publicly available, mainly published, sources, including standard reference works.
It is planned to maintain the database by adding data on Members elected at subsequent by-elections, and general elections, as well as to add missing data where it is found.
The original database was created by Professor Michael Rush at the University of Exeter: we are grateful to Professor Rush for sharing the database with us and allowing us to use it as a basis for this one.
Using the data
The database incorporates the following basic details in relation to individuals:
- Dates of birth and death
- Parliamentary service (dates elected, constituency, and reason for the end of service (e.g. death, resignation, defeat)
- Parents
- Education (schools and universities)
- Marriage
- Party affiliation(s)
- Membership of unions and some other political groupings, and sponsorship, where relevant
- Club membership
- Local government service
- Membership of another Parliament
- Ministerial office
- Peerage
- Any relationship with another member (parent, sibling, marriage)
Some data, particularly as regards dates of birth and death and other details for earlier Members, may be missing or incomplete.
Data Protection
Public access to the data on living Members has been restricted to very basic information, although the full dataset is accessible to academic researchers if they can demonstrate compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The History of Parliament itself holds and processes the data on living Members in accordance with its obligations under the GDPR, and considers doing so to be in line with its legitimate interests.
Any person who wishes to review the information held about them on the database is welcome to do so by contacting website@histparl.ac.uk
Academic Use
Requests from academic users to download and use the full database should be addressed in the first instance to The History of Parliament Trust, which will deal with requests in consultation with Professor Rush. Access will only be granted if users can demonstrate compliance with GDPR, or that they will process the information in accordance with the same standards, they agree to ensure that the copyright of Professor Rush and the Trust is appropriately credited, and they agree not to share the information with any third party. The Trust, and Professor Rush, reserve the right to refuse access to the full database on these, or on any other grounds.
You can contact the History of Parliament Trust at website@histparl.ac.uk
Database schema diagrams
You can download the current database diagrams either as a PDF or a JPG.