The reform of the British Constitution remains an unfinished business. Explain & Discuss

One more important change that has incurred over recent years is the reform of the Lords. This has changed the constitution so that the Lord Chancellor no longer sits on all 3 of the most prestigious political institutions of Britain. Also, the law lords who used to congress in the House of Lords have been moved to a separate location at the Supreme Court as of October 2009. This has brought about a more democratic system within the political system itself. Due to the un-elected nature of the House of Lords, further reforms were also made to lead it towards at greater democratic state. Under the House of Lords Act 1999, most hereditary peerages were removed and life peerages were introduced. Since then, calls have been made to ensure that the House of Lords is partially elected in order to be a credible second chamber. There is a minority who view that the upper chamber should be abolished altogether. These reforms still remain in progress, under the new coalition government agreement; proposals for a fully elected upper chamber through proportional representation and fixed terms of up to 15 years are in consideration. This would mean the Prime Minister’s power to appoint Lords would be shifted onto the people for more representative democracy.

There has been little substantial reform in the Commons; a few examples are timing-related changes such as the moving of Prime Ministers Questions from 1500 to midday on Wednesdays and the cutting of PMQ from 2 sessions per week to just 1. Also, time-efficient changes such as allowing MPs to vote electronically from inside the chamber and scrapping sittings on Fridays to allowed visitors to view and learn about parliament. Although these are not constitutional reforms, the conservative party proposed to cut the number of MPs by 65 after the expenses scandal which brought to light excessive parliamentary spending.  The reduction of the seats in the Commons will most likely lead to re-mapping of constituent lines, which leads onto electoral reform to solve the problems arising from the FPTP system and the wide discrepancies in the number of votes for each seat.

Another section of constitutional reform that remains uncompleted is the codification of the rights and liberties British citizens have today. In 1998, the Human Rights Act was integrated into British legislation under the European Convention. This allowed citizens to defend themselves against the government or court system in cases where their rights had been diminished. An example of the act in action is the Belmarsh incident of 2004, eight suspects of terrorist plots were held at Belmarsh prison without charge or trial. This was a clear breach of the Human Rights Act so the government acted to amend the legislation so that no such situation should happen again. This incident demonstrates the Human Rights Act in use, not just in writing. A step that could further these reforms would be an extension of more rights and the entrenchment of the Act so that all European Conventions is binding under British law. This would ensure citizen’s rights would not be violated and force the government to conform to such matters. But, these put severe limits on the power of the government and it would inevitably transfer more power to the European Union, such an important reform should initiate consultation with the electorate possibly in the form of a referendum. Conversely, a legislative reform that has not seen much success is the Freedom of Information Act, which allows the right for citizens to view documents and reports held by the government for greater transparency in the political system. The access to these documents would lead the government be scrutinised more ensuring they act in the best interests of the public. A fundamental example of the act operating is infamous Expenses Scandal of 2008 whereby Human Rights campaigners acquired the details of ministerial expenditure, which was then leaked to the public. This was an important step to clarifying the constitution and making government accountable to its people, and one of the few examples of the Freedom of Information Act in action. However, an event that undermines the FOI Act was when the Justice Secretary Jack Straw vetoed the publication of cabinet minutes over Iraq, showing that information would only be publicized when in the best interests of the executive. This is a constitutional reform that remains to be judged due to its short existence, the rights of citizens need to be clarified clearly in order to democratize Britain fully.

In conclusion, Britain has made significant constitutional reforms and is progressing towards further improvements but currently the full extent of reforms are yet to be accomplished with many reforms being incomplete as in devolution, reform of parliament and other such matters. So, it could therefore be said that today, the reform of the British Constitution does still remain an ‘unfinished business’.