Tag: Ministerial Code
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Mike Gordon: Labour’s Ministerial Code and Political Standards Reform
On 6th November, Prime Minister Keir Starmer published his (long awaited) revised version of the Ministerial Code. A written statement in Parliament by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, accompanying the release of the updated text suggested that ‘[t]he new code will be instrumental in setting out the high standards that the…
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Ben Yong: The quiet demise of constitutional boilerplate: or How special advisers can get their groove back
Sometimes we are so focused on big changes that we miss the mundane ones. But we shouldn’t. Sometimes a mundane change can tell us something about the character of a set of arrangements. The new UK Government has just issued a new version of the Ministerial Code (‘the Code’). The Code has a quasi-constitutional status, serving partly as an ethics code…
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Mike Gordon: Creating an Integrity and Ethics Commission in the UK: The Case for Reform and Challenges for Implementation
In an era of intense and continuing controversy over the rules of political responsibility, the question of how to reform the current framework of constitutional standards applicable to politicians requires serious consideration. In addition to the regularity with which allegations about ministerial irresponsibility are being raised and sometimes (eventually) addressed, there are clearly structural challenges…
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Conor Casey: House of Lords Constitution Committee Rejects Significant Reform to UK Law Officers
Background to Inquiry on Role of Law Officers The Attorney General and Solicitor General are the UK government’s principal legal advisors. Known collectively as the Law Officers, the origins of these ancient constitutional officers date back to the 13th Century. Historically, the Law Officers were leading barristers who acted as the Crown’s personal lawyers, fiercely…
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Sir Jonathan Jones QC (Hon): The Northern Ireland Protocol, International Law and the Attorney General
The Times recently (11 May 2022) reported that the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, had received, and given, legal advice to the effect that proposed government action in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol was compatible with international law. As I write, we have still not seen details of either the proposals or the legal arguments…
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Mike Gordon: The Prime Minister, the Parties, and the Ministerial Code
The current Prime Minister’s long running battle with the Seven Principles of Public Life continues to gather pace. Boris Johnson’s actions relating to the pandemic ‘partygate’ scandal have arguably violated each of the principles established by the Nolan Committee in 1995: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. The Prime Minister’s full house of…
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Chris Monaghan: Party-gate as a Ground for Impeachment? Perhaps, But We Need to Modernise Impeachment Before It Is Fit For Purpose
In a recent post published on the UKCLA blog, I argued that impeachment could serve a purpose in the contemporary United Kingdom. The key points were that a modernised impeachment process could buttress the existing political accountability mechanisms. This would support the ability of the House of Commons to hold the government to account and…
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Mike Gordon: A Statutory Basis for the Ministerial Code – the Challenges
With the UK in the midst of its latest political corruption crisis, the question of the (in)adequacy of the current infrastructure concerning standards in public life is once more in the spotlight. Immediately prior to the parliamentary farce over the Owen Paterson lobbying affair, the Committee on Standards in Public Life published a significant report,…
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Lee Marsons: Constitutional change in an era of incrementalism: Launching Public law Project’s UK constitutional reform tracker
We are living in constitutionally eventful times. From the prorogation of Parliament, Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Independent Review of Administrative Law, the Independent Human Rights Act Review, the Nationality and Borders Bill, the Judicial Review and Courts Bill, or multiple stories surrounding the ministerial code, this is a time of ongoing constitutional importance, tension, and change. It is difficult to keep up,…
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Rodney Brazier: Mr Johnson and His Flat
Let me begin with what should be platitudinous. The presumption of innocence is a cherished legal principle in the United Kingdom. No one is guilty of a crime unless a court so decides after a fair hearing, and anyone accused of wrongdoing short of a crime is entitled to the protection of an analogous principle. …