New Houses of Parliament Website to Be Launched in October

Jamaica’s new Houses of Parliament website is slated for official launch in October.

This was announced by Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Most Hon. Juliet Holness, who indicated that the website is “in the very last stages of being overhauled”.

She was addressing the opening ceremony for the 48th Regional Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Caribbean, Americas and Atlantic (CAA) Region at the Moon Palace Jamaica Hotel in St. Ann on Monday (August 31).

Mrs. Holness, who chairs the CPA-CAA, emphasised that the website’s development marks an important step in ongoing efforts to make Parliament more accessible, responsive and better equipped to meet the information needs of its stakeholders.

She noted that the revamped portal will feature a national legislative repository, providing digitally accessible parliamentary documents; enhanced accessibility feature; and live streaming of parliamentary meetings, enabling persons beyond the physical precincts of Parliament to follow its proceedings.

“You will have to look nowhere else for every single piece of legislation… every single debate, every single document that has ever existed in Parliament’s days gone by and currently,” Mrs. Holness explained.

She stated that the site will also feature a directory of all parliamentarians, making it easier for citizens and other stakeholders to identify their representatives and access relevant information about them and their parliamentary roles.

The House Speaker further noted that the site will facilitate virtual tours of Parliament and incorporate features designed to improve accessibility for persons who are visually impaired, enabling them to navigate the platform more easily.

“For those who have disabilities, for the first time you will be able to log on to the Parliament of Jamaica and you can listen to whatever debate you would like to, whatever you would like to know and, most importantly, be able to tour our Parliament and walk through it as if you are not in a rural space, but physically in Kingston, Jamaica, walking through its Houses of Parliament,” she explained.

Mrs. Holness emphasised that revamping of the website forms part of broader efforts to modernise Jamaica’s parliamentary operations.

The CPA-CAA Conference is being held from August 31 to September 5 under the theme – ‘Strengthening Parliaments in the Digital Age’.

It is expected to provide a forum for regional parliamentary leaders and other stakeholders to engage in institutional exchange and strengthen capacity-building initiatives among Commonwealth legislatures.