Simply Understand is a unique service which translates government consultations from technical policyspeak into plain English. The website creator, Corinne Pritchard, is a civil servant who grew frustrated by her own attempts to respond to policy consultations. Upon reading her first consultation document she found the language so impenetrable that she could barely get through the first few pages. Conscious that if she - a civil servant well versed in Westminster jargon - found it hard to understand the document, then many others would struggle too; she decided to offer her translation services to others.

Pritchard now selects three or four consultations every month and asks her readers to vote on which one they want translated. She then goes through the consultation and picks out all information that readers need to make an informed response. Typically, she reduces documents down to a tenth of their size or less, and provides the text in a clearly laid out new document.

For more information, to access old translations and vote on new ones, click here.

It's been over 18 months since the launch of www.peopleandparticipation.net and we are keen to make sure that the site remains up to date and useful. Please help us make the website better by taking our short user survey. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete and everyone who takes the survey will be entered into a draw to win a £20 Amazon voucher.

Click here to take survey