Question

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, when the display and software for the House of Commons Annunciator was last updated; and what plans the Commission has to modernise that software.

The annunciator system was replaced with a new system on 14 December 2018. This replacement implemented a new Annunciator graphics system that includes but was not limited to the following features:

• resilient hardware platform
• software and hardware solution to generate high-definition Commons and Lords graphics
• software application to support the creation of graphics templates
• software application to maintain a local cache of selected data obtained from the Members’ Names Data Platform for inclusion in the graphics service
• software application to support the provision of a live graphics service
• separate systems for the Commons, Lords and Security teams that are connected using a video signal flow
• software solution with the capability to support the development of additional functionality

The Parliamentary Digital Service has some funding in the Digital Portfolio in the next financial year to extend the annunciator service based on the new software platform. This funding will be informed by some user research amongst Members to confirm what features would be of most benefit.