Do you have info relevant to the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill? Here’s how to submit it.

The UK’s version of ratifying the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict has made it to the House of Commons (recall, it started in Lords) and Public Bill Committee will be meeting about it on 15 November 2016. Preferably in advance of that, and certainly before 17 November, they’ll be accepting written evidence from you experts and other interested parties. If anyone has something to say about this, it’s the readership of this blog. If you can offer something, please do.

More detailed info about this call can be found here on the Parliament website. The guidance on submission is worth repeating here, please follow it, they may toss what doesn’t conform to the rules:

What should written evidence cover?
Your submission should address matters contained within the Bill and concentrate on issues where you have a special interest or expertise, and factual information of which you would like the Committee to be aware.

Your submission could most usefully:

• suggest amendments to the Bill with explanation;
• and(when available, probably from September) support or oppose amendments tabled or proposed to the Bill by others with explanation

It is helpful if the submission includes a brief introduction about you or your organisation. The submission should not have been previously published or circulated elsewhere. If you have any concerns about your submission, please contact the Scrutiny Unit (details below).

How should written evidence be submitted?
Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk. Please note that submissions sent to the Government department in charge of the Bill will not be treated as evidence to the Public Bill Committee. Submissions should be in the form of a Word document. A summary should be provided. Paragraphs should be numbered, but there should be no page numbering.

Essential statistics or further details can be added as annexes, which should also be numbered. To make publication easier, please avoid the use of coloured graphs, complex diagrams or pictures. As a guideline, submissions should not exceed 3,000 words.

Please include in the covering email the name, address, telephone number and email address of the person responsible for the submission. The submission should be dated.