The United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group (UKCMG), established in 2020, is made up of members with practical experience and academic knowledge of the UK constitution. Its formation was driven in part by concern about declining adherence to constitutional standards and principles in the UK. Those concerns proved to be more than amply justified by events in the years that followed.
Since 2021 the Group has produced biannual reports on constitutional developments in the UK, of which this is our ninth (we also produced, early in 2024, a pre-election overview). We assess trends and occurrences against a set of twenty criteria, taken largely from official accounts of standards, rules and procedures produced by entities such as the UK government. Our focus has been on whether, when these principles are taken into account, unfolding events or initiatives should give us any cause for concern. This report covers a timespan, from 1 July 2025 up to 31 December 2025. In it we continue our task of monitoring developments against our criteria.
Members of the group participate in a personal capacity, and not as representatives of any other organisations or institutions with which they are associated.
The members are: Dame Ursula Brennan, Professor Dame Linda Colley, Professor Mark Elliott, Professor Katy Hayward, Professor Aileen McHarg, Sir Richard Mottram, Professor Petra Schleiter, Sir Paul Silk, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd.
This publication presents the personal views of the author and not those of The Constitution Society, which publishes it as a contribution to debate on this important subject.