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Report LaunchWarm Westminster Reception Greets “The House Rules?” the Constitution Unit Report on Boosting Parliament’s Independence. The House Rules?, the new Report by the Constitution Unit’s Meg Russell and Akash Paun on enhancing the autonomy of the House of Commons, was given an enthusiastic cross-party welcome at its public launch at Westminster on Tuesday 16 October. “Unrealistic” attempts to make government whips share power with backbenchers had been avoided, said Tony Wright, the Labour chair of the Public Administration Committee, who described himself as a “buoyant pessimist” on the prospects of the front benches adopting the essential thrust of the Report. Its “central insight” was correct, which was “to carve out a route for non-government business, rather than set up a Business Committee to control all business…Left to themselves, the whips will colonise every part of the institution. How can we stop the colonisation going too far, to the point where it corrupts the institution?” Among its 60 recommendations, the Report proposes greater access to the agenda for backbenchers and select committees in peak time, a new principle that members should be able to force votes on meaningful motions in debates, and the creation of a cross party Backbench Business Committee to select non-government business for debate. Crucially, the proposed reforms would not impinge on government’s ability to “get its business” where it has a supportive majority in the House. (See: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/unit-publications/142.htm ) The Report was “a wonderful route map for reform” declared the Conservative chair of the Standards and Privileges Committee Sir George Young. He singled out for approval the proposal to allow committee chairs to make peak time statements on committee reports, with opportunity for immediate further debate in Westminster Hall. He also approved of the recommendation to reform the Committee on Selection (which proposes the membership of public bill and select committees) to comprise largely backbenchers under a strong backbench chair, elected by secret ballot of the whole House. Membership of bill committees should also reflect the balance of opinion in the House so that critical voices from within the governing party could not be excluded from the crucial committee stage of the legislative process. Former Lib Dem chief whip Lord (Paul) Tyler, a declared optimist for reform, said “cross party activity”, which the Report explicitly seeks to facilitate, “has increased, is increasing and ought to continue to increase”. It was right that a separate space be created for such activity – in the form of the recommended weekly “House Business” slot – leaving government to control the timetable for its own legislation and other business. The chair of the launch meeting – The Times’ political commentator Peter Riddell – was another optimist, noting that all three main parties had declared themselves in favour of some rebalancing of power between Government and Parliament. As a result, proposals for reforming Parliament were “among the most likely to happen” over the next couple of years. Brian Walker
This page last modified 4 September, 2009 by v.spence@ucl.ac.uk |
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