Month: November 2016

Blog

One year of EVEL: Evaluating ‘English Votes for English Laws’ in the House of Commons

Post author By psaparliaments
Post date November 30, 2016

By Daniel Gover and Michael Kenny

It is now just over a year since the House of Commons adopted a new set of procedural rules known as ‘English Votes for English Laws’ (or EVEL). Put simply, EVEL provides MPs representing constituencies in England (or England and Wales) with the opportunity to veto certain legislative provisions that apply only in that part of the UK. (For a reminder of how the process works, see here.) Introduced with some fanfare by the Conservative government following the 2015 election – and criticised heavily by its political opponents – these procedures have quickly faded from public view. But, one year on, what lessons can be drawn from how EVEL has operated so far?

Tags devolution, England, English nationalism, English Parliament, EVEL, House of Commons, parliamentary procedure, West Lothian Question

Blog

Connecting Parliaments and Citizens online: The initiatives of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and the UK House of Commons

Post author By psaparliaments
Post date November 23, 2016

By Isabele Mitozo

Over the last two decades, the web has become a facilitator for information access. Institutions, especially representative ones, have used that means to communicate with citizens. Parliaments, more specifically, have tried to improve the use of digital platforms to go further and open up the process of law construction.

Tags Brazil, participatory democracy, public engagement, UK House of Commons

Blog

Sunset Clauses in Anti-Terrorism Laws: What’s the Point?

Post author By psaparliaments
Post date November 16, 2016

On 31 October 2016, the House of Commons agreed, without debate, to approve the draft Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011 (Continuation) Order 2016. If agreed by the Lords, the order will continue in force the Home Secretary’s powers under the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011, namely to impose, via a ‘TPIM’, a range of duties, obligations and restrictions on suspected terrorists. That power was due to expire on 13 December 2016, five years after its enactment, because of the incorporation in the legislation of a sunset clause – a legal provision that provides for the expiry of a law or part of a law at a later date. Unless the House of Lords defies parliamentary convention and does not approve the continuation order, it is unlikely that the TPIM powers will now expire. This does not necessarily mean that the sunset clause has failed; after all, it may be that the TPIM powers are an important and useful part of the UK’s counter-terrorism regime and warrant extension. The imposition of six new TPIMs by the Home Secretary in the past three months suggests that the government believes this to be the case.

Tags anti-terrorism, parliamentary scrutiny, sunset clauses

Blog

Irrelevant Questions Undermine the Value of PMQs

Post author By psaparliaments
Post date November 9, 2016

By Andrew Defty

The weekly Prime Minister’s Questions is undoubtedly an important mechanism for holding the government to account. The requirement that the Prime Minister must come to the chamber of the House of Commons on a weekly basis to answer questions about government policy and administration provides a valuable, and rare, opportunity for individual MPs to scrutinise government.

Tags House of Commons, Oral Questions, parliamentary scrutiny, prime minister, prime minister's questions, scrutiny

News

Essay Competition 2017

Post author By psaparliaments
Post date November 8, 2016

Following the success of our Essay Competition of 2016, we are pleased to announce the launch of our Essay Competition 2017! The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50. Last year’s winners were presented the award by the Clerk of the House at our annual one-day conference.

Tags essay competition, parliamentary studies

Blog

Why Public Scrutiny of Legislation Requires New Parliamentary Processes

Post author By psaparliaments
Post date November 4, 2016

Please note that this blog piece was originally published on the UK Constitutional Law Association’s blog, and is available here.

Legislation is complex, but it is also essential to the functioning of our political system. A great deal of primary and secondary legislation hits the statute book every parliamentary session. Even the so-called ‘zombie parliament’ of the 2014-15 session saw 25 bills passed into law, with around one government bill being passed every five sitting days. MPs and peers therefore have a difficult job to do, scrutinising a deep and fast flowing stream of legislation every session. And it is important to get it right. Effective legislation requires not just accurate wording within the text of a bill, but an understanding of how that bill will work in practice and the difference it will make to people’s lives. Involving the public in legislative scrutiny can therefore add much value to the process, bringing an alternative perspective to the pros and cons of legislation.

Blog

A Recipe for Impact? Strengthening academic engagement with Parliament

Post author By psaparliaments
Post date November 2, 2016

Reporting on new research that looks at the way parliamentary staff wish academics would engage with Parliament, Katharine Dommett argues that researchers would benefit from not only rethinking where and how they target research, but also the very form academic research should take.

Tags impact, parliament, parliamentary engagement, ref, research excellence framework, research impact

News

One-day conference: a great success!

Post author By psaparliaments
Post date November 1, 2016

Thank you to everyone that attended and participated in our first one-day conference (we hope the first of many!). It was a fantastic event with a range of academic panels, a practitioner roundtable, a poster exhibition, and our annual lecture from the Clerk of the House of Commons, David Natzler. You can see a full summary by following the Twitter hashtag: #ParlConf. We also have a summary of the paper and poster abstracts available here.

Tags conference, Events, parliament, parliamentary studies, roundtable