Queen’s Speech - Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

Home > Queen’s Speech - Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

News

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Queen’s Speech - Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

“Legislation will continue to be taken forward on constitutional reform.”

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill was introduced in the last Session and has been carried over into this Session. It received a Second Reading and consideration for two days in Committee of the Whole House in the previous Session.

The Bill would give effect to a number of the reforms proposed in the Governance of Britain Green Paper published in July 2007. A draft Bill was published for scrutiny in March 2008. It was considered by a Joint Committee of both Houses, together with the Justice Committee and the Public Administration Select Committee in the House of Commons.

The purpose of the Bill is to:

Rebalance the relationship between Parliament, the Government and the public. It aims to rebuild trust in our democratic and constitutional settlement by reinforcing the principles of transparency, accountability and probity across government.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

To continue the Government’s programme of constitutional reform, increasing the accountability and transparency of Parliament and government.

The main elements of the Bill are to:

• Place the Civil Service and Civil Service Commissioners on a statutory footing, enshrining the Civil Service’s core values in statute.

• Create a statutory basis for the Parliamentary scrutiny of Treaties, prior to their ratification.

• End the by-election of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords.

• Provide for the disqualification of peers convicted of a serious criminal offence or who are subject to a bankruptcy restriction order.

• Provide a power for the House of Lords to expel or suspend a member, including the withholding of a writ of summons.

• Allow peers to resign and disclaim their peerage.

• Repeal legislation that limits protests around Parliament and replace it with a regime to guarantee access to Parliament.

• Introduce a one-year time limit within which legal proceedings can be brought under the devolution Acts where it is alleged that there has been a breach of Convention rights by members of the devolved administrations.

• Remove the Prime Minister from the process of appointments of the President, Deputy President and judges of the Supreme Court.

• Create a new corporate structure for the National Audit Office.

• Provide for the inclusion of the spending of non-departmental public bodies, and other central government bodies, in the Estimates and Accounts of the responsible government department.

• The Government is currently preparing a draft House of Commons resolution setting out processes for the House to follow in order to approve any deployment of the Armed Forces in armed conflicts overseas.