Raw Data

Here you can find raw data compiled by the Public Whip project. For example, if you want to load a voting record into a spreadsheet.

For legal and copyright information, see our FAQ. However, we ask that if you do anything fun or important with this data, you let us know! Any problems using the data, or requests for a different format? Email team@publicwhip.org.uk.

You can browse all the data. The data all goes back to parliaments from 1997. It is generated by Public Whip from the division listings in the debates files made by the Parliament Parser project. You can find lots of other parliament data there.

MP votes for each division

The .dat files are tab-separated text files for loading into a spreadsheet. They contain a matrix of every vote of each MP/Lord in each division. The columns are headed by the identifiers of the MPs/Lords, and the rows begin with the date, number and title of the division. Each .txt file explains what number represents aye, no, abstain and so on, and gives a key to the MP/Lord identifiers.

votematrix-1997.dat votematrix-1997.txt
votematrix-2001.dat votematrix-2001.txt
votematrix-2005.dat votematrix-2005.txt
votematrix-2010.dat votematrix-2010.txt
votematrix-lords.dat votematrix-lords.txt

You may have problems using these files because they have more than 256 columns, and some spreadsheets don't go beyond column IV. See if your spreadsheet can import "from column x" so you can load the files in chunks. OpenOffice (or StarOffice) has a "Column type" drop down on the import dialog. You can select multiple columns and choose "Hide", then more of the other columns will be loaded. Try to find a copy of Quattro Pro, it works fine with more columns. If you are really stuck, email me and I'll export the data in multiple files.

MP attendance and rebelliousness rates

You can open XML files in any text editor, XML viewer or some spreadsheets. In the files there are comments with more information.

mp-info.xml - list of division attendance rate and rebelliousness for MPs in the all-members.xml file. This is a live file, correct to the latest division in the Public Whip database. The field data_date shows the date it applies up to. For members who have left the house it says "complete".

mp-info.xml?house=lords - likewise for the House of Lords.

Database dumps

pw_static_tables.sql.bz2 - Text dump of MySQL tables containing raw voting and MP data.
pw_dynamic_tables.sql.bz2 - Text dump of MySQL tables containing policy (Dream MP) votes and edited motion text.
pw_cache_tables.sql.bz2 - Text dump of MySQL tables containing cached calculations.