I attended a Hansard Society lecture on Wednesday of last week given by the Speaker, John Bercow, on revitalising the chamber of the Commons. You can read the lecture here. He identified various ways in which more members could be attracted to the chamber to participate. In response to a question, he expressed support for select…
As mentioned in an earlier post, I was successful in the ballot for a Thursday debate and my motion – to call attention to the case for enhancing the means available to the House of Lords to scrutinise legislation and public policy – occupied the the first of today’s two debates. The debate was notable for the…
One of the other meetings I attended this past week was a Hansard Society seminar. It was the first in a series on ‘Making Better Law’. I gave a paper that examined some of the problems at the heart of the current law-making process. I identified various problems. One is the sheer volume of legislation. …
I promised in response to a comment on an earlier post to discuss post-legislative scrutiny. When I chaired the Constitution Committee of the Lords, we undertook a major inquiry into the legislative process. We looked at the legislative process holistically, examining not only the process when a Bill is before Parliament but also pre-legislative and…
