Select Committee

When the Labour government came to power and needed to deliver on its manifesto promise to ‘deepen our democracy by reforming Parliament’, it reached for a familiar tool. On 25 July 2024, MPs voted to establish the new, improved House of Commons … [Read more...] about Parliamentary Modernisation: The Long and Winding Road

On 2 June 2025 the Prime Minister stood before journalists at a press conference in Glasgow to trumpet the Government’s Strategic Defence Review. As a result of the Review, up to 12 new nuclear-powered submarines will slip into the water from … [Read more...] about The Speaker’s War: Announcements in the House of Commons

Introduction In Part 1 of this piece I summarised the role of Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (SLSC) and some trends that it had flagged during the last parliamentary session. Broadly speaking, these included: (1) a … [Read more...] about Spotlight on the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee – Part 2

In November 2021, two parliamentary committees declared that the use and overbreadth of delegated legislation had shifted power irreparably away from Parliament and that only a total “reset” would suffice. One of them, the Secondary Legislation … [Read more...] about Spotlight on the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee – Part 1

It is broadly accepted that parliamentary scrutiny of legislation is a ‘good’ thing and that, if possible, there should be more of it. It is also broadly accepted that it is often ineffective and wrongfully subverted. As a result, most commentaries … [Read more...] about The purpose of legislative scrutiny