Conservative Agenda for
Constitutional Reform
Prof Robert Hazell
The Constitution Unit, UCL
17 February 2010
Big agenda for constitutional reform
• Reduce size of Parliament
• Introduce British bill of rights
• Legislate to require referendums for future EU
Treaties
• Reaffirm supremacy of Parliament in a
Sovereignty Bill
• English votes on English laws
• Elected mayors in 12 large cities
Chapters in the Report
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Conservative Philosophy
Ministers and the Executive
Devolution and Decentralisation
Strengthening Parliament
Europe: Treaties and Sovereignty
Elections, Referendums and Political Parties
Chapters in the Report (2)
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Human Rights
The Judges
Freedom of information and Privacy
Constitutional Watchdogs
The Monarchy
Direct Democracy
Making it Happen: Legislative Programme
Conservative Philosophy
• Decentralisation, and redistribution of power back
to the people
• Distrust of big government and bureaucracy
• Stronger accountability to Parliament
• Greater transparency, making politics more
accessible, and ‘giving power to the powerless’
Ministers and the Executive
• Limit the number of Ministers and Special
Advisers
• Strengthen Ministerial Code, more decisions
made by Cabinet as whole
• Protect independence of Civil Service
• Fixed term contracts for senior civil servants
• Stronger Whitehall boards, non-execs can
recommend removal of Perm Sec
Devolution
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One or three territorial Secretaries of State
SNP referendum on independence
Welsh referendum on primary legislative powers
Replacing Barnett formula, and fiscal autonomy
for Scotland
• More formal intergovernmental relations
• English votes on English laws
Decentralisation in England
• Abolish regional assemblies, remove powers over
planning from Regional Development Agencies
• Referendum on elected mayors in 12 large cities
• Power to veto council tax rises
• Power to instigate referendums on local issues
• Directly elected police commissioners
Strengthening Parliament
• Reduce House of Commons by 10%
• Strengthen Select Committees, reduce
government control of parliamentary timetable
• Petitions to enable public to put things on
parliamentary agenda (100k/1m signatures)
• On line ‘Public reading’ stage of bills, free votes
for all MPs at committee stage
Reduce Commons by 10 per cent
• Remove 65 MPs at next election
• Speed up parliamentary boundary reviews,
abolish local inquiries, ?abolish consultation
• Electoral quota: devolution discount for Scotland,
Wales and NI (loses 40 MPs)
• Or lose 53 seats out of 65 in England
• Parity vs speed. Greater parity will not help much
in reducing bias against Conservatives
Timetable for reducing size of Commons
• 2010 May Cabinet Committee starts
• July White Paper. November bill introduced
• 2011 July Bill passed. November Boundary
Commissions start reviews
• 2012 July end of consultation period
• 2012 December Report of Boundary reviews laid
before Parliament, with 585 new constituencies
Reform of House of Lords
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Oct 2009 Lab 213, Con 192, LD 71, XB 183
May 2010 Lab 240, Con 210, LD 80?
Strathclyde wants 40 new peers: 10 pa?
Will Cons support Const Reform and Gov Bill
provisions for discipline; retirement; and nonrenewal of hereditary peers?
• Elected second chamber: 240 elected members,
by FPTP, one third at each general election; plus
60 appointed members, for 12-15 year terms
Europe: Treaties and Sovereignty
• Legislate to require referendum for future EU
Treaties
• Would a future government be bound by this?
Would the courts enforce it?
• Are all future treaties subject to referendum?
What if the vote is No?
• Sovereignty Bill to reassert supremacy of UK
Parliament: to what legal effect?
British Bill of Rights
• British bill of rights is also Labour and Lib Dem
policy, and supported by JCHR
• ECHR plus or minus?
• Give courts more detailed guidance on where to
strike balance between competing rights
• No social or economic rights
• Wide public consultation, including devolved
governments: could they veto?
The Judges
• Need to curb growing power of the judges
• Curb excessive enforcement of EU law and ECHR
by the courts
• Judges will not like being told how to interpret EU
law or ECHR
• Nor will they like cuts to budget of court service,
Legal Aid, or to their pensions
Freedom of information and privacy
• Publish every item of government spending over
£25k
• Create new right to datasets: data.gov.uk
• Reduce 30 year rule to 20 years
• Tighter exemption for Cabinet papers
• Strengthen the Information Commissioner
• Scrap the ID card scheme and ContactPoint
database
Constitutional Watchdogs
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Civil Service Commissioners put in statute
Abolish Standards Board for England
Reduce functions of Electoral Commission
Information Commissioner to be appointed by
(?and funded by) Parliament
• Advisory Committee on Business Appointments to
give rulings, not advice, with two year moratorium
• Office for Budgetary Responsibility
The Monarchy
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Diamond Jubilee in 2012
Possible Regency
Accession of Charles III
Review of Civil List in 2010
Ending religious tests and primogeniture?
Requires consent of 15 other countries where
Queen is head of state
Direct Democracy
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Referendums on future EU Treaties
Petitions to require Parliament to debate issues
Referendums on elected Mayors
Referendums to veto council tax rises
Power to instigate referendums on local issues
Elected police commissioners
Legislative Programme
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Bill to reduce size of House of Commons
EU Treaties (Referendums) Bill
Sovereignty Bill
British Bill of Rights
Local Government (Direct Democracy) Bill
Constitutional Watchdogs Bill?
Some Issues for first 30 Days
• Reduce number of Ministers and SpAds
• One or three territorial Secretaries of State
• Approve new Ministerial Code and Cabinet
Manual. Lay before Parliament?
• Decide Cabinet Committees and chairs
• Decide policy on reducing Commons by 10%
• Welsh referendum on primary powers
• More non execs for Whitehall boards
Who leads on What
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Cabinet Office Minister on civil service
Leader of House on parliamentary reform
Justice Secretary on British bill of rights
Devolution strategy?
Lords reform?
Referendum on EU Treaties?
Sovereignty Bill?
English votes on English laws?
Agenda if Conservatives need
Liberal Democrat support
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Electoral reform
Lords reform
Fixed term Parliaments
Party funding, inc additional support for Lib Dems
in this Parliament
Prof Robert Hazell
The Constitution Unit
School of Public Policy, UCL
r.hazell@ucl.ac.uk
www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit