Governance of Britain

The Governance of Britain Green Paper included a commitment to increase democratic scrutiny of public appointments.  The Government has now published a list of key appointments which will be subject to pre-appointment hearings by the Select Committee. The list includes posts which play a key role in protecting the public’s rights and interests and where the post-holder [...]

The Joint Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill have announced the remaining schedule of witnesses who will give oral evidence on the Bill.  Jack Straw, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice will give evidence at the final evidence session on 1 July.   The full list of witnesses can be found here.

Jack Straw gave evidence on a Bill of Rights to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on Wednesday 21 May. A video of his appearance can be seen here. More information about the Committee’s inquiry into a British Bill of Rights can be found here.

The next meeting of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Reneweal Bill will be held on 3 June.  Confirmed witnesses so far are Gareth Crossman, Director of Policy at Liberty and Mike Schwarz, Partner at Bindmans. A meeting will also be held on 4 June and evidence will be  heard from Baroness Usha Prashar, Chairman of [...]

The Joint Committee of the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill will hold two evidence sessions this week.  The first at 1.45pm today will hear evidence from Tim Dutton QC, Chairman, Bar Council, Andrew Holroyd, President, Law Society and Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor, Daily Telegraph. Sebastian Payne, Lecturer, Kent Law School, University of Kent, Peter Facey, Director, Unlock [...]

Today the Government has published Preparing Britain for the Future - the Draft Legislative Programme 2008-09, which sets out the UK Government’s plans for legislative and key non-legislative action in next year’s Parliamentary session. The document can be viewed here. The Government’s plans to publish their draft legislative programme in advance of the Queen’s Speech in [...]

The Joint Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill will be holding an evidence session on 14 May at 4.15pm. They will be interviewing former Chiefs of the Defence Staff including Admiral the Lord Boyce, GCB, OBE, DL, Field Marshal the Lord Bramall, KG, CGB, OBE,  MC, and Marshal of the Royal Air Force the Lord Craig of Radley, GCB [...]

The Joint Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill holds its first evidence session today at 1.45pm in Committee Room 2A/3A at the Palace of Westminster.  Witnesses include Professor Vernon Bogdanor, University of Oxford and Peter Riddell, Chief Political Commentator at The Times and Chairman of the Hansard Society.  A full list of witnesses can [...]

The Joint Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill has released its call for evidence, inviting interested organisations and individuals to submit written evidence. The deadline for submissions is 12 June 2008.More information and details of the scope of the inquiry can be found here.

The two Houses of Parliament have established a Joint Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, published by the Ministry of Justice on 25 March 2008.  The remit of the Committee is to consider the draft Bill, and report on it to both Houses by 18 July. At the Committee’s first meeting on Tuesday 6 May, [...]