“The Governance of Britain” and a New Chapter on Liberty?
November 6, 2007
On 25 October 2007, Gordon Brown set out his plans to write the next chapter in the story of British civil liberties and pledged his commitment to a British Bill of Rights in a speech at the University of Westminister.
Mr Brown said that the British Bill of Rights would “entrench and enhance” individual freedoms. Yet on the other hand, the Prime Minister stated that the bill would set out the responsibilities “that flow from British citizenship”. He did not rule out controversial plans for ID cards nor the extension of the holding of terrorist suspects beyond 28 days but said that the latter would be subject to scrutiny.
See a summary of the meaning of a written constitution in the UK – as well as links to a summary of the Prime Minister’s speech on liberty and other documents at:
This follows the publication on 3 July 07 of the Green Paper, “The Governance of Britain”. Gordon Brown said that the Green Paper sets out for “a new British constitutional settlement that entrusts more power to parliament and the British people”. This “routemap” (rather than a “final blueprint”) concerns the shifting of power from the executive to Parliament ( for example through limits on the exercise of prerogative powers such as the declaration of war), and reform of public appointments and the role of the Attorney General etc.
See summary at:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,,2117920,00.html
Governance of Britain Green Paper can be found at:
http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm71/7170/7170.pdf
Related documents on Ministry of Justice Website:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/governanceofbritain.htm
Modernisation of the Commons
November 6, 2007
Main issue: ‘Individual responsibility’; there has been frustration
amongst the opposition in government, as well as from some government
backbenchers that ministers can only be quizzed on topics of which they
are notified in advance, giving them an advantage in the way that they
have time to prepare answers, and with the help of civil servants. This
reduces their accountability.
Proposed changes: The Commons Modernisation Committee, who are
concerned with the practices and procedures of the House of Commons,
have proposed a reform to deal with the responsibility issue. Under the
proposal, each minister in charge of a major government department will
face a monthly 15 minute questioning. The topics involved have to be
ones for which they are responsible but are without notice, giving no
time for extensive preparation, as well as being a regular occurrence.
It needs to be approved by MPs, but the government itself has already
given its backing to the proposal.
Relevance: Is a potential reform of current government (in particular,
House of Commons), procedure.
By Rachael Toon
Link to article on Times Online:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2689562.ece
The modernisation of the House of Commons was debated on 25 October 2007 .
The Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman said:
‘I will do everything I can to protect the rights of Back Benchers, to hold the Government to account, to ensure proper and timely scrutiny of legislation, and to enable the House to hold the most open, effective and best informed democratic debates in the world’
To put the questioning of ministers into context - the consequences of improved accountability can be seen most clearly on important matters. For example, the effect could be that “Groundhog day” situations, where politicians repeat the same political banalities when tough questions are raised (see John Redwood’s comments ), may become less frequent. This may in turn drive progress forward on topical questions such as membership of the EU. Read the Commons debate and speeches at:
