Tag: Parliament
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David Erdos: Lost in Inaction? The Statutory Reports on Media Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
Editors’ note: This post was originally published on 12 February 2025 Section 179 of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 places the Secretary of State under a duty to ensure that a Report is “la[id] before Parliament” on both the “use” and “effectiveness” of “relevant alternative dispute resolution procedures” in cases involving actual or alleged failures by media organisations, other than broadcasters, “to comply with…
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Max Taylor: A Role for Parliament in Independent Judicial Appointments: A Comparison with the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Starmer ministry plans to ‘…deepen our democracy by reforming Parliament…’, but missing from its proposals is any reconsideration of whether Parliament should adopt a role in judicial appointments somewhat analogous to that of the US Senate in federal judicial appointments (US Constitution, Art II, s 2). Debate about such a proposal has recurred from…
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Ben Yong: What—and Who—is Parliament?
The Palace of Westminster is a symbol of British democracy, and it is falling apart. It is a serious danger to those who work within it: a recent news report suggested the Palace could be the next ‘Notre Dame inferno’. For years parliamentarians have repeatedly argued over what to do about this grim state of…
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Isabel Taylor: Not So Arcane After All: Archives and the Battle for ‘Ancient Freedoms’ in the Stuart Permanent State of Emergency
In popular consciousness, archivists (when noticed at all, and not confused with Indiana Jones) are usually otherworldly, whey-faced individuals poring shortsightedly over mediaeval tomes, their institutional domains obscure, dusty spaces with little connection to the ‘real world.’ The central role of archives as repositories for important legal records is thereby often overlooked, but this function…
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James Milton: The Antiquity of Anonymous Pairing
Recently, online debates have emerged about the usefulness of the website TheyWorkForYou (TWFY), a tool which provides people with a view into the voting records of Members of Parliament. Articles and blog posts have rightly detailed the oversimplification of providing a snapshot of members’ votes, which does not make clear the nuance of particular motivations…
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Jason Varuhas: Remedies Reform Part 2: Discretionary Factors
This is the second in a series of two posts on the remedial reforms proposed in the Judicial Review and Courts Bill (2021), which provide for courts in judicial review proceedings to grant suspended and prospective-only quashing orders. The first post considered the general case for reform, arguing reform is justified so as to reassert…
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Daniella Lock, Fiona de Londras and Pablo Grez Hidalgo: Parliamentary Engagement with Human Rights during COVID-19 and the Independent Human Rights Act Review
As the deadline for submissions to Independent Human Rights Act Review (IHRAR) passes this week, the appropriate division of constitutional labour in respect of human rights protection continues to attract debate. The terms of reference for the IHRAR suggest a focus on the role of the courts in protecting rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA).…
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Jack Simson Caird: A Proposal for a Code of Legislative Standards?
On the 20 of May the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee (the PCR) published its report on legislative scrutiny standards titled ‘Ensuring standards in the quality of legislation’. The Report contains two eye catching and ambitious proposals for parliamentary reform: the creation of a joint committee on legislative standards and the adoption…
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Mark Elliott: Devolution, the West Lothian Question, and the nature of constitutional reform in the United Kingdom
Earlier this week, the McKay Commission published its Report on the Consequences of Devolution for the House of Commons. The Commission’s terms of reference required it to determine “how the House of Commons might deal with legislation which affects only part of the United Kingdom, following the devolution of certain legislative powers to the Scottish…
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Patrick O’Brien: The Member for the Australian Jungle, Nadine Dorries MP
Nadine Dorries’ recent, rather quixotic, decision to expose herself to the vagaries of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here and, in the process, to absent herself from the Commons for up to a month has led to severe criticism, but rather oddly, does not appear to have broken any Commons rules. For those…