Wikidata:WikiProject British Politicians/Coverage
WikiProject British Politicians
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As of March 2022, we have:
- comprehensive data including party affiliation, constituency, and service dates for all MPs, 1970 onwards (example for the 2010-15 Parliament);
- comprehensive data including party affiliation, constituency and service dates for all members of the Scottish, Welsh, and (current) Northern Irish devolved assemblies (example for 2011-16 MSPs);
- near-comprehensive data including service dates and constituencies for most MPs from 1820-1970, with some omissions and ambiguities (validated complete from 1880, imperfect before that date), plus party affiliations for members from 1923 onwards.
Prior to 1820 service dates are not yet available, but we do have some form of Wikidata entries representing the majority of known historical MPs, and improved coverage for some early periods:
- 1660-1820 - basic items with a link to History of Parliament records for all MPs, but no dates of service or constituencies
- 1640-1660 - only incomplete coverage of the Civil War and Commonwealth periods
- 1509-1629 - constituency and parliamentary terms for all MPs recorded by the History of Parliament (which is incomplete in this period), but no exact dates of service
- 1422-1504 - very incomplete coverage of the fifteenth century
- 1386-1421 - constituency and parliamentary terms for all MPs recorded by the History of Parliament (which is incomplete in this period), but no exact dates of service
- prior to 1386 - very incomplete coverage
- pre-Union Scotland or Ireland- very incomplete coverage
In total, this represents 28,600+ individual MPs, or 30,900+ including members of the devolved parliaments plus pre-Union Ireland and Scotland.
Coverage of the House of Lords is less comprehensive, though the majority of current Lords members are listed with term dates.
As a side project, we have included coverage for all ambassadors and high commissioners since ~1800; this has substantial overlap with MPs, particularly in the early part of the period.
- Milestones
- August 2022 - first tranche of Beamish peerage data imported
- March 2022 - Wikidata:WikiProject British Politicians/Building Queries created
- Winter 2021-22 - backfilling of additional party data
- October 2021 - all "unknown" dates 1800 onwards resolved
- 9 May 2021 - all 2021 MSPs and MSs added; all party changes for MSPs since 1999 validated
- 2 May 2021 - checked life peers 2019-21
- 24 March 2021 - validated midterm changes 1970-2020 against WP
- 14 March 2021 - terms for Commonwealth period completed, making a complete set of terms from 1352-date
- 30 December 2020 - @everympbot started (code)
- Winter 2020 - backfilling of party affiliations
- 12 October 2020 - majority of old-style position claims cleared up for GB and UK MPs to ensure consistency
- 9 August 2020 - first rough import of 1820-32 History of Parliament term/constituency/date information
- 20 July 2020 - full match to Rush database (up to present day) completed
- 4 July 2020 - all terms since 1350 set up as items (with the exception of the complicated 1640-60 period) and interim import of term data from WP
- 19 June 2020 - confirmed matching of all 916 entries in Legacies of British Slave-ownership person ID (P3023) recorded as an MP
- Spring 2020 - continued validation of term data for the late 19th century, initial import of some House of Lords members with dates
- 13 Dec 2019 - all 2019 MPs added and verified
- 5 May 2019 - Import of History of Parliament term/constituency data for 1604-1629, and subsequent volumes, for MPs up to 1640
- 18 April 2019 - Party data imported 1935-70
- 24 March 2019 - Party data imported 1970-97
- 27 January 2019 - Import of History of Parliament term/constituency data for 1509-1558, 1558-1603
- 14 January 2019 - Import of History of Parliament term/constituency data for 1386-1421
- 31 December 2018 - Data validation completed back to 1892
- 9 November 2018 - Completed crossmatching with Rush data (1832-2005)
- 28 August 2018 - Began experimental import of History of Parliament term data
- 29 July 2018 - Data validation completed back to 1922; problem cases noted in detail
- 24 June 2018 - Data validation completed back to 1950
- 1 June 2018 - History of Parliament matching completed for all volumes (another ~25 entries missing from the original scrape were added 5 June)
- 27 May 2018 - History of Parliament matching completed for 1386-1421 and 1604 onwards
- 22 April 2018 - Data validation completed back to 1964
- 22 February 2018 - Historic Hansard term and constituency data completed back to 1832
- 11 December 2017 - Historic Hansard term and constituency data completed back to 1918
- 12 November 2017 - Historic Hansard term and constituency data completed back to 1950
- 10 October 2017 - Began import of pre-1992 term and constituency data from Historic Hansard
- 24 September 2017 - History of Parliament name matching complete back to 1690; now covers all members of the Parliament of Great Britain
- 20 August 2017 - term and constituency data for all MLAs completed (modern Assembly only)
- 17 August 2017 - term and constituency data for all Westminister MPs completed 1997-2017
- 31 July 2017 - term and constituency data for all MSPs completed
| Country | Start | End | Status | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 1265 | 1385 | Period not yet covered; very limited coverage of names; some term data where it overlaps with HoP-based items. | |
| England | 1386 | 1421 | All MPs matched to History of Parliament; term and constituency data. Explicit dates not given on items but can be inferred from terms. | History of Parliament |
| England | 1422 | 1504 | Period not yet covered; patchy coverage of names; some term data where it overlaps with HoP-based items. | |
| England | 1509 | 1629 | All MPs matched to History of Parliament; term and constituency data. Explicit dates not given on items but can be inferred from terms. | History of Parliament |
| England | 1640 | 1660 | Incomplete coverage of names | |
| England | 1660 | 1707 | All MPs matched to History of Parliament; no term and constituency data | History of Parliament |
| Scotland | 1235 | 1707 | Very limited coverage of names | |
| Great Britain | 1707 | 1801 | All MPs matched to History of Parliament; no term and constituency data | History of Parliament |
| Ireland | 1297 | 1800 | Very limited coverage of names | |
| United Kingdom | 1801 | 1820 | All UK MPs matched to History of Parliament; no term and constituency data | History of Parliament |
| United Kingdom | 1820 | 1880 | Term and constituency data imported but not fully checked. All MPs 1820-32 matched to History of Parliament. | Historic Hansard |
| United Kingdom | 1880 | 1923 | Term and constituency data complete and validated, but party data not available | Historic Hansard with manual checking |
| United Kingdom | 1923 | 1970 | Term and constituency data complete and validated, party data imported but not fully checked | Historic Hansard with manual checking |
| United Kingdom | 1970 | 2018 | Term and constituency data, and party data, fully validated with all mid-term changes | MySociety and Historic Hansard data plus manual checking |