The Constitution Society: Working to promote informed debate about constitutional reform

Despite the government’s re-shuffle taking place almost two weeks ago, the Cabinet Office is yet to announce a replacement for Mark Harper, former Parliamentary Under Secretary for Constitutional and Political Reform.

During the re-shuffle Mr Harper was appointed to the position of Minister of State for Immigration in the Home Office. However, the Cabinet Office has kept his photograph and biography on their website and continue to describe him as being in his former role. Upon phoning the Cabinet Office and House of Commons Information Office neither could shed any light on who his replacement was – both suggesting the other should know. 

The recent withdrawal of the bill pushing for an elected House of Lords and the effective concession of maintaining current constituency boundaries seems to indicate that the majority of this government’s constitutional agenda is over. The lack of a replacement for Mr Harper indicates the low priority the Coalition is now placing on these issues. 

Nevertheless it is unusual that so far after a re-shuffle no appointment has been made to replace Mr Harper. With issues surrounding Scottish independence and ‘devo max’ as well as continued debate on Europe it seems odd not to have found a suitable replacement.

The Constitution Society wishes Mr Harper all the best for his new portfolio and thanks him for his contribution to the constitutional debates of this parliament. We look forward to working with his successor, as and when he or she is announced.

9th August 2012

A summary of this term’s constitutional affairs: bringing together debates and questions in Parliament, Select Committee activity and online comment.

As the House of Lords Reform Bill is abandoned and Nick Clegg withdraws the Liberal Democrats’ support for boundary change, two major constitutional reforms are halted by disagreement within the coalition. The argument over political funding continues, as Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone are criticized for using a legal loophole to conceal the identities of donors who funded their mayoral election campaigns. In news on Scottish independence, David Cameron is said to be ready to give the Scottish Parliament the power to hold a referendum but urges the need for a single question. A recent Democratic Audit report voices serious concerns over ‘the increasingly unstable nature of the UK constitution’, and suggests we cannot move past the current crossroads without reaching agreement on a set of democratic values.

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The latest Coaltion fall-out over Lord’s reform has highlighted the way in which constitutional issues can easily turn into a game of political football. Booted between the Coalition partners, a decision of crucial importance on how we run our democracy has descended into short-term politicking.

A turnaround from a principled stand in favour of boundary changes to opposition marks a new low in how constitutional issues are addressed. The debate on whether AV or Lord’s reform was the price of reducing the size of the Commons misses the point entirely – constitutional changes require scrutiny and well-thought out legislation, not horse-trading and tit-for-tat.

While there are principled reasons for and against specific changes on either side of constitutional debates it is frankly depressing how these have often been quieter than discussion of partisan advantage. From arguments within Labour as to whether AV would benefit them or not to the quid pro quo agreement in the Coalition that AV would benefit the Liberal Democrats and boundary changes would benefit the Tories. 

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As previously reported the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls MP, referred to our groundbreaking report; ‘Select Committees and Coercive Powers – Clarity or Confusion?’ written by Richard Gordon QC and Amy Street. Below is footage from the Parliamentary debate on ‘Professional Standards in the Banking Industry’ in which Mr. Balls cited our ‘very important’ report while calling for a judge-led inquiry into Libor rate-fixing scandal.

Robert Rogers, Clerk of the Commons, has published a new paper on the powers of select committees. Much of what he writes agrees with the key points of our own report, Select Committees and Coercive Powers – Clarity or Confusion a copy of which can be downloaded here.

Mr Rogers says of our report, “…The Constitution Society’s recent study by Robert Gordon QC and Amy Street, [is] one of the best considerations of the issues I have seen.” This follows on from its citation in the Commons by the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, who described the report as “very important”.

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In a Parliamentary session on standards in the banking industry the Shadow Chancellor, Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, called for a judge-led inquiry into the Libor rate-fixing scandal citing The Constitution Society’s groundbreaking research into the power of Select Committees. 

Highlighting some of the key findings of report authors, Richard Gordon QC and Amy Street, the Shadow Chancellor said:

“We should consider the recent experience of the phone hacking scandal and all the deliberations we see in, for example, the very important report on the details and reality of Select Committees and coercive powers, entitled “Select Committees and Coercive Powers—Clarity or Confusion?”, from The Constitution Society.”

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The government’s House of Lords Bill has been formally published amidst discontent on the Conservative backbench. 

The Bill is having its Second Reading on 9th July which will then be followed by the Committee Stage assuming the Bill passes this first hurdle. After this there would be a Report Stage followed by the Third Reading and movement of the Bill to the Lords where the process is repeated. 

Labour has already committed to voting against a timetable motion, designed to limit the time spent debating the Bill, and is likely to table an amendment for a referendum on this constitutional change. It is widely believed that many Conservative backbench MPs are considering voting with Labour on this.

The main details of the government’s proposals are as follows:

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Following The Constitution Society’s submission of written evidence (which can be found here) to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee’s inquiry into ‘Ensuring standards in the quality of legislation’; Nat le Roux, Director of The Constitution Society, was invited to give oral evidence on the 21st of June. He appeared alongside Lord Butler and Sir Nicholas Monck who served as representatives of the Better Government Initiative.

Below is a video of Nat attending the oral evidence session before the Committee.

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The Constitution Society provides organisational and secretarial support for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the British Constitution, chaired by Lord Norton of Louth. The Group works to broaden legislators’ knowledge base and improve the quality of debate on proposals for constitutional change and the way in which they are introduced.

We are excited to announce that the APPG meetings will now be available to listen to as podcasts. The most recent meeting of the APPG on the Constitution was on on the subject of Party Funding

The speakers, in order of appearance, were:

• Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life
• Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance and Campaign Director of NOtoAV
• Professor Keith Ewing, King’s College London and Unions Together

You can listen to the podcast on our website here. If you would like to download the podcast simply right click the link above and select ‘save as’.

Following The Constitution Society’s successful Parliamentary launch event held on the 13th June we are pleased to be able to share videos of the key speakers. The large audience was made up of MPs, Peers, clerks, academics and journalists and the event was chaired by Nat Le Roux, Director of The Constitution Society. Questions following the panel speeches were ‘off the record’ and so are not recorded. 

Richard Gordon QC is an eminent constitutional lawyer and Co-Author of the report ‘Select Committees and Coercive Powers – Clarity or Confusion?’ He makes the opening speech, introduces the report and gives a short overview of the key issues raised by it.

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