How to track a topic in the UK Parliament for free

Updated 19 October 2026. Official sources checked 19 October 2026.

Step by step: the free official route

1. Search Hansard for debates and statements

   Hansard, the official report, is a substantially verbatim record of what is said in the Commons and Lords. Commons Hansard covers the chamber, Westminster Hall, written ministerial statements, petitions and corrections. On sitting days a rolling version is published in instalments, so you should see what was said within about three hours; the full daily part follows the next morning. Search for an exact phrase such as "extended producer responsibility".

2. Search written questions and answers

   Parliament's written questions service lets you search Commons and Lords written questions and answers by keyword, date tabled or answered, House, whether answered, and the answering department. Searching apprenticeship levy, for example, shows what ministers have been asked and how they replied.

3. Follow bills with RSS

   On the Bills site, find the bill and use its RSS feed to be told when it reaches a new stage, when new bill documents are published and when it gets Royal Assent. There is also an all bills feed listing the most recent bills of the session.

4. Watch select committee inquiries

   Committees publish their inquiries, calls for evidence, written evidence and oral evidence transcripts on the committees website. When an inquiry on your topic opens, anyone with relevant experience can submit written evidence.

5. Set GOV.UK email alerts for consultations and publications

   GOV.UK's policy papers and consultations finder can be filtered to open consultations and by topic; Get emails sends you new items for that search. See our guide to finding open government consultations.

6. Keep an eye on petitions and new legislation

   A Parliament petition that reaches 10,000 signatures gets a government response, and one that reaches 100,000 may be debated. New Acts and statutory instruments appear on legislation.gov.uk, which publishes a new legislation feed.

What the free tools do, and what they leave to you

Everything above is free and official, and Parliament's material can be reused under the Open Parliament Licence. The catch is that it is spread across at least six services: Hansard and the written questions service are searches you re-run to see what is new, bill RSS feeds work one bill at a time, and GOV.UK alerts are separate again.