Governance of Britain

page edited
  • 27 June 2008
in more detail:

How much do you know about the British constitution? We have all heard of the major players in our constitutional set-up – the House of Commons, the House of Lords, Members of Parliament, The Queen. But many of us are not sure how they fit together. What powers do each of these people or institutions have? And how did they get them?

The Governance of Britain programme is about constitutional renewal. It is about looking at who has power in our country and making sure that the balance is right.

Part of doing this is looking at the current situation. You can find some information on the British constitution and how our political arrangements have developed over the years on these websites:

Since 1997 the Government has introduced some major constitutional reforms aimed at giving more power to the people and extending our rights and liberties.

These reforms include:

  • the creation of the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the Greater London Assembly;
  • the modernisation of the House of Lords and the ending the right of the majority of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords;
  • the passing of the Human Rights Act into UK law, giving further effect to the European Convention on Human Rights in our domestic law;
  • the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act, increasing public access to data, increasing transparency and the public’s ability to hold Government to account; and
  • the establishment of a new Supreme Court.

The proposals announced in the Governance of Britain Green Paper and the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill build on these important constitutional reforms to bring power closer to the people.

They focus on reform in four areas: shifting power by sharing it with, or transferring it to the people’s representatives in Parliament; increasing the accountability of Government; reinvigorating our democracy; and building a new relationship between the citizen and the state.

These changes will not happen overnight. The Ministry of Justice is leading this work, but it involves many other Government departments. We are working closely with them, as well as with the public, to make sure that the proposed changes help us to develop arrangements for governing that are fit for modern Britain.