Constitutional Reform: The central role of Parliament

At a well-attended public meeting held in Westminster on Monday November 26, 2007, four experts on the role of Parliament debated what needs to be done to enhance the role of Parliament. The speakers briefly set out some main points for discussion before taking questions and comments from the floor. The meeting was chaired by Peter Riddell, Chair of the Hansard Society.

Alex Brazier, Director of the Hansard Society Parliament and Government programme, opened the meeting by outlining the Hansard Society's response to the Government's Green Paper The Governance of Britain. He stressed that the Hansard Society has consistently advocated that Parliament's powers should be strengthened and that it should achieve a more equitable and influential relationship with the Executive. As the central, sovereign body at the heart of our representative democracy, Parliament's independence and effectiveness is the benchmark by which the health of our political system should be judged. While welcoming the Green Paper, he had some caveats - firstly, that the Government should do more to promote the role of Parliament in the reform process and, secondly, that it is crucial that the proposed changes are fully and regularly explained to the public and that their views are sought. An informed and interested population is essential to the health of democracy.

He stressed that what was needed was cultural as well as procedural change and that MPs must play their part. He said that reforms since 1997 have not shifted power at all because there was no end point set out. If there was one reform above others which the Hansard Society would like to see implemented, it would be the formation of a petitions committee. Mr Brazier stressed that while direct democracy techniques have a part to play, they are not a solution in themselves. What is needed is a strong, independent Parliament which has a more equal relationship with government and a more open relationship with citizens.

Michael Wills MP, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, paid tribute to the work of the Hansard Society and stressed that there was a lot of consensus across the political parties that constitutional reform is important. He said that there has been an increase in the power of the Executive and that Parliament has been downgraded for too long. A ‘great chunk' of the proposed constitutional reform bill is to address the powers of Parliament. He stressed the need to reform the second chamber and the need for greater participation by citizens. He gave examples of direct democracy such as participatory budget making at local level and the proposed Citizens' Summit to deliberate on a statement of Britishness, but underlined that the result of this Summit would go to Parliament. He said that we must respond to changes, but keep Parliament at its heart. Parliamentary democracy and the role of Parliament is precious and although technology makes different forms of democracy possible, we must resist the lure of an electronic, plebiscitary form of democracy.

Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Shadow Leader of the House, agreed that we must cherish and maintain our representative democracy. Direct democracy has a role to play, but we must retain and enhance our representative democracy. She said that there must be a shift in the balance between Parliament and the Executive. She concentrated on two issues - engaging people and strengthening representative democracy. On engaging people, she stressed that we must show people that politicians and what they do are worth engaging with. She highlighted three areas for change: secondary legislation, post-legislative scrutiny and scrutiny of European legislation. Secondary legislation often gets no debate and primary legislation is now often drafted vaguely so that secondary legislation is required. We must look at the amount of secondary legislation and how we handle it. Post-legislative scrutiny is vital as Parliament rarely goes back to see if Acts have achieved the aims they set out to achieve. There is very little scrutiny of European legislation and this needs to be changed. If we enhance representative democracy, we will get better legislation.

Lord Tyler, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Constitutional Affairs, agreed with a lot of what the previous speakers had said. He stressed that constitutional reform is not very high profile, but that Parliament itself is often in the news - usually the hot topics are whether there is corruption and why people don't bother to vote. He said that the perception of Parliament was crucial. Party funding must be sorted out because it is critical to restoring the reputation of Parliament. There is a connection between the reputation of Parliament and whether people perceive their votes to be important. There is a disconnection between the voting system and the voters. We can tinker with little improvements, but we need to do more to reinvigorate our democracy. He stressed that a Business Committee would be an important change - the House of Commons should be controlling that part of House business which is not Government business. If the House of Commons is to regain authority, the Green Paper proposals are not enough - we need a more critical analysis to the problems and solutions to address these problems.