Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last week appeared before the Constitution Committee as part of its inquiry into the process of constitutional change. You can watch the session here or read the transcript here. He was asked about the Government’s proposals for the future of the House of Lords. I pursued him on the implications for…
The House achieved a notable success on Monday. As readers will recall, the Public Bodies Bill attracted criticism from all parts of the House. It is a ‘Henry VIII’ Bill, enabling ministers to change primary legislation – in this case, Acts establishing particular public bodies – by order (that is, secondary legislation). A particular focus…
I agree with Lord Knight’s assessment of the Public Bodies Bill. It is making slow progress through the House. This is in part because of time being taken by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill and also because peers are keen to discuss the bodies included in the different schedules of the Bill. A number are…
The media last Thursday tended to concentrate on the publication of the Constitution Committee’s report on the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill rather than on the Lord Chief Justice’s appearance before the committee the previous day. However, on Friday, The Guardian carried a report on his Lordship’s evidence. It focused on his criticisms of Schedule 7 of the…
The past week has been a busy one for the House in considering constitutional issues. On Monday, there was a question for short debate (QSD) on the role of the House in the event of reform. Such debates are time-limited – in this case to ninety minutes – and there were so many speakers that…
