Westminster Parliament Research Articles

The origins of centralized agenda control at Westminster: Consensus or controversy?

AbstractCentralized agenda control is a feature of many parliaments, with important consequences for the conduct and outcomes of legislative politics. Much previous work has thus sought to understand the emergence of centralized agenda‐setting rules. We extend this literature by studying the “Balfour reforms”, which centralized agenda control in the early twentieth century UK House of Commons. Our aim is to probe a conventional claim in the existing literature: that the opposition supported these reforms. This is a counter‐intuitive claim, which rests on relatively little direct evidence. We analyze historical roll‐call data from 1902 to assess how far the opposition supported agenda centralization. We complement this analysis by examining attempted amendments and speech contributions to parliamentary debates. Contrary to the standard view, we find that the primary opposition party consistently resisted these reforms. This evidence of controversy rather than consensus revises our understanding of a key milestone in the development of the Westminster parliament, and contributes to the wider literature on the choice of agenda‐setting procedures.

The Real Problem with Constitutional Reform

Discussion of how the UK can remain coherent as a multinational state needs to focus not on what powers might be given away to the regions and nations but on how to facilitate a sharing of power between different parts of the UK. This article examines how far programmes for constitutional reform, including the Welsh Senedd’s document Reforming our Union and the Labour Party’s A New Britain, have recognised the need for power-sharing in their discussion of matters like the reform of the House of Lords and the role of the Supreme Court. The conclusion is that current views of the sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament are incompatible with any meaningful constitutional reform. To change this would require a willingness to have constitutional arrangements much closer to those of the European Union, the very organisation which the UK decided in 2016 that it wanted to leave. It would also require seeing Northern Ireland less as a ‘troublesome province’ which needs to have its own form of government, but as an example of how progress can be made through power-sharing.

Parliamentary standards under attack: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the Westminster Parliament

ABSTRACT Healthy democracies require ethical leadership and respect for rules, but since the 2000s we have witnessed serious attacks on standards in the UK Parliament. Two narratives about scandals will reveal cultural and social aspects that are often ignored by the public, journalists and parliamentary scholars. A slow development of conditions led to a scandal over misuse of expenses in 2009, while rule-breaking in Parliament during Prime Minister Johnson’s term in office emerged more suddenly, in part out of the rupture of Brexit. Making sense of these cases about standards, and the connections between them, requires a theoretical approach that goes beyond looking at the bad behaviour of individuals or rotten cultures within a malfunctioning system. In the gap between the two, you find relationships. I make an argument for a relational, cultural and historical approach within which people act in complex configurations of interdependence as both individuals and socialised actors.

The Law and Concept of Fiscal Devolution in the United Kingdom

Fiscal devolution is a multifaceted and evolving concept that plays a pivotal role in the governance of the United Kingdom, which is still under an ongoing development process. At the end of the 1990s the subnational governments achieved various stages of autonomy since the 1998 devolution acts, which ratified the administrative and fiscal devolution, provide the formal structure for revenue-raising and expenditure powers. The devolutionary process was facilitated after the Great Recession, assigning different income raising and welfare authorities to Scotland and Wales, while the same progress was dampened in Northern Ireland, because of the looming political instability. The system is complex, consisting of several essential elements that are closely linked to each other: devolution acts, fiscal frameworks, block grants, tax devolution, tax-varying powers, borrowing powers and the reserved matters. The results are not the same or uniform, each country has its own set of rules, negotiated with and enacted by the Westminster Parliament. It reflects the evolving nature of governance and the recognition that one-size-fits-all policies may not be suitable for a nation as diverse as the United Kingdom. It can be regarded as a testament to the adaptability of the constitutional and legal framework in response to changing political and social landscapes. The fiscal devolution experience in the UK underscores the need for a delicate balance between local autonomy and national cohesion. The legal and conceptual framework underpinning fiscal devolution has profound implications for economic policy, public finance, and intergovernmental relations and it is still subject of ongoing debates and reforms and not without complexities and challenges.

An Annotated Chronology of Hansard References to “Colonial Prisoners Removal” in the Westminster Parliament from 1869 onwards

An Annotated Chronology of Hansard References to “Colonial Prisoners Removal” in the Westminster Parliament from 1869 onwards

Wandering abroad: British law, Irish independence, and Beckett’s vagrants

If there is something approximating a Beckettian social type it is doubtless the vagrant or tramp, those ostensibly idle and disorderly individuals. But too often (and for far too long) these figures have been understood only in terms of a metaphysical or metaphorized “homelessness”, as exemplars of existential despair, psychoanalytic banishment, modernist alienation or even a precondition of the posthuman condition articulated in his later work. This essay instead locates these figures in relation to the legal legacy of colonialism in post-independence Ireland, precisely to demonstrate how Beckett’s writing relates to this discourse. Most relevant in this regard is Section 4 of the 1824 Vagrancy Act passed by the Westminster Parliament – and still in force during the Irish Free State era – which indicates that the following classes of people shall be deemed “rogues and vagabonds”: “every person wandering abroad and lodging in any barn or outhouse, or in any deserted or unoccupied building, or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart or wagon, not having any visible means of subsistence and not giving a good account of himself or herself”. In all its particulars, the definition closely applies to the many vagrants found in Beckett’s fiction and drama, especially the narrators of his four nouvelles, whose very existence seems to be at odds with the legal ideology of the post-independence state. Acknowledging this legal legacy is key to recognizing the political significance of contradiction, aporia, and misunderstanding in Beckett’s writing, which disrupts the authority of such discourses (taken to be non-contradictory, systematic, and self-evident) not just to assert and maintain legal identities, but to separate some individuals from the ranks of legitimate subjects of the bourgeois nation-state.

Human Trafficking: Iconic Victims, Folk Devils and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022

On 28 April 2022, the Westminster Parliament passed the controversial Nationality and Borders Act. The Act is the single biggest overhaul of the UK's immigration system in decades. The Act aims to deter illegal entry into the UK; remove more easily those with no right to be in the UK; and increase the overall fairness of the system. Notwithstanding these seemingly laudable objectives, however, this article argues that the Act represents a retrograde step in the protection of victims of human trafficking. Relying upon Nils Christie's ‘ideal/iconic victims’ and Stanley Cohen's ‘folk devils’ critique, the article contends that, in an age of heightened securitisation and moral panics, the Act will create ‘folk devils’ of victims of trafficking who do not self‐identify, and unduly penalise victims of trafficking who have committed offences in the course, or as a consequence, of being trafficked.

Legislative ex-post impact assessments in Europe: applying a new assessment framework for comparative institutional analysis on Post-Legislative Scrutiny by national parliaments in Europe

ABSTRACT This article analyses parliamentary practices in conducting Post-Legislative Scrutiny (PLS) in Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom against four categories of parliamentary approach in PLS. Parliaments as passive scrutinisers have few parliamentary structures, capacity and procedures for PLS and no parliamentary PLS reports. Parliaments as informal scrutinisers have few parliamentary structures and procedures but are stronger in terms of own parliamentary outputs on PLS. Parliaments as formal scrutinisers have more developed structures and procedures on PLS but remain weak in terms of outputs and follow up. Parliaments as independent scrutinisers are strong in terms of structures and procedures as well as in terms of reports and follow up. The case-studies indicate that the federal parliament of Germany is a passive scrutiniser in PLS, the parliament of Italy an informal scrutiniser, the parliaments of Sweden and France formal scrutinisers, and the UK Westminster and Swiss parliaments independent scrutinisers.

Ethical issues arising from the assisted dying debate.

The assisted dying debate is complex, with confusion over definitions and the stance taken by professional bodies. It can also be challenging to make sense of the claims made by those who support changes in the law regarding assisted dying. End of life care is an important aspect of a nurse's role and therefore understanding the ethical issues arising from the debate is useful for nurses in clinical practice. This article outlines the legal position in the UK and the bills currently before the Westminster and Scottish parliaments proposing changes in the law. It also considers major ethical issues arising from the debate, along with the nurse's role in caring for patients requesting assisted dying.

Brexit and the United Kingdom's Devolutionary Constitution

AbstractThis piece considers the implications of the Brexit process for the United Kingdom's territorial constitution. It advances two narratives of the devolutionary settlement; one which emphasises the continuing post‐devolution influence – and dominance – of the institutions of UK‐level government, the other which regards devolution as having engineered a quasi‐federal division of powers and having diluted the sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament via expressions of national sovereignty in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The continuing resonance of the former is addressed across three elements of the Brexit process: (1) the design and outcome of the 2016 referendum; (2) litigation concerning Brexit and devolution; and (3) the legislative process of repatriating competences to domestic institutions from the EU. Seen through these lenses, Brexit is argued to provide ongoing evidence of the democratic deficits that the post‐1998 phase of devolution was designed to address, and of an increasingly unstable territorial constitution.

Territorial variation in territorial representation: the local base of Westminster MPs

Territorial representation, the representation of local entities in the Westminster Parliament, lies at the heart of British democracy. In the recent academic debate, it has been asked whether local representation also needs a local representative and which specific characteristics would constitute ‘localness’ in this context. Investigating the biographies of 1108 Westminster MPs between 2010 and 2019 and exploring different dimensions of local base, this study examines the extent to which the demand for a local representative is actually fulfilled in the British Parliament. We discover a slow yet stable increase in the descriptive representation of the local (DRL) over time as well as notable variations across party and regions, especially among the constituent nations of the United Kingdom. Applying a genuine territorial perspective to our results, we link the detected DRL increase to the general territorialisation of politics in the UK. The fact that the political divergence of its constituent parts affects even the implementation of a core principle of British democracy is finally depicted as another indicator of the deep territorial divisions pervading British politics.

Wodrow's News: Correspondence and Politics in Early 18th‐Century Scotland*

AbstractThis article examines the creation and consumption of scribal news by the early 18th‐century Scottish Presbyterian minister Robert Wodrow (1679–1734). It argues that Scottish news culture depended on the interaction of printed newspapers, professionally produced newsletters from London, personal letters and oral communication. For Wodrow, at least, personal letters were the most important source. No widely circulated commercial newsletter was produced in Scotland, and personal letters were vital for communicating information about the Scottish parliament, the church courts and the Westminster parliament after the Anglo–Scottish Union. News provided as a gift, rather than a commodity, served social functions. The article explores two moments at which Wodrow paid particular attention to parliamentary news: the ratification of the Union in 1706–7, and the passage of the Episcopalian Toleration, Patronage and Yule Vacation Acts in 1712.

Rights‐Restricting Rhetoric: The Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021

AbstractThis article considers the role of rhetoric in British political discourse with a particular focus on how it aids the construction of legislation that restricts human rights. Using the parliamentary debates concerning the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021 as an extensive example, it demonstrates how the rhetorical theatrics of legislating in the Westminster parliament play a fundamental role in justifying restrictions on rights to the public. Rhetoric fulfils three functions in this process: persuasion of the need for rights‐restricting legislation; obstruction of scrutiny of such plans, and the perpetuation of national myths and tropes upon which such policies are debated. Arguing that such rhetorical functions are immovable from British political discourse, the article concludes by proposing how they can best be diluted.

Voting Age Reform, Political Partisanship and Multi-Level Governance in the UK: The Party Politics of ‘Votes-at-16’

Abstract The UK is now a multi-level polity with asymmetrical minimum ages of enfranchisement. The franchise was first extended to 16- and 17-year-olds in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. The Scottish and Welsh governments now permit 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in elections to their devolved parliaments and local councils. The Northern Ireland Executive and the devolved authorities in England do not, however, have the power to change the voting age, and across all four nations of the UK, the age of franchise remains 18 for elections to the Westminster Parliament. The previous extension of the age of franchise, from 21 to 18 in 1969, attracted little controversy or political partisanship. But while there has been considerable political consensus regarding voting age reform in Scotland and Wales, debate over ‘Votes-at-16’ for Westminster elections has witnessed growing party-based partisanship. This article draws upon elite interviews with politicians across the political spectrum elected to Westminster and the devolved institutions on their attitudes to voting age reform, conducted as part of a 2-year Leverhulme Trust ‘Lowering the Voting Age in the UK’ project. The article argues that the multi-level party politics of the ‘Votes-at-16’ debate has consolidated rival party opinions on voting age reform at Westminster but not beyond.

Navigating three faces of decentred leadership in the UK Parliament

PurposeThe Westminster Parliament is multifaceted, lacks cohesion and collective direction, appearing at times to challenge the very notion of a structured public institution itself. Within an environment with little collective identity, understanding who leads in the UK Parliament is challenging; there are multiple, contestable sites of leadership and governance. The purpose of this article is to explore the understudied concept of legislative leadership, to better understand what goes on inside the legislature. The author presents a decentred and nuanced disaggregation of “leadership as practice” in parliament, examining three faces of legislative leadership.Design/methodology/approachInterpretive approaches to studying legislatures have presented new impetus to research in this area and the author utilises such anti-foundationalism. The article draws on ethnographic research into “everyday practices”, conducted during an academic fellowship in the UK Parliament from 2016 to 2019, which involved privileged access to the parliamentary estate. The data used include observations, shadowing and elite interviews collected during the fellowship.FindingsBy looking at the legislature from the inside, the author can better understand elite behaviour. This helps to explain motives, daily pressures and performative skills deployed in displays of autonomous, decentred leadership. The legislative leadership the author observed was atomised and could be stretched to accommodate the incumbent office holder. There were multiple relationships both formally constituted and informally constructed, but little collaborative or consensus leadership.Originality/valueThis article fulfils an identified need to study leadership in legislatures – and in particular key elites – from the inside.

Writing Scottish Parliamentary History, c.1500–1707

AbstractIn the 19th and 20th centuries, scholarship on the Scottish parliament was heavily informed by a narrative of ‘failure’, directed at explaining why its members voted it out of existence in 1707. Part of the problem was the tendency to see any deviation from the practices of the Westminster parliament as weakness. By reappraising parliament in terms of its utility to those who comprised its membership, notably the titled peerage and the monarch, historians have revealed its adaptability and inventiveness, especially in times of crisis. This essay considers how fresh approaches both to what constituted the parliamentary record and what can – and cannot – be found within it have exerted a transformative influence on our understanding of parliament's evolving role in Scottish political life. Although the Reformation crisis of 1560 and the accession of the ruling house of Stewart to the English throne in 1603 effected profound changes on parliamentary culture, this essay emphasises how parliament sustained its legitimacy and relevance, in part, by drawing on past practices and ideas. Historians have become more attentive in recent years to the means by which social groupings ordinarily excluded from formal parliamentary activity were nonetheless able to engage with, and influence, its proceedings. Gaps remain in our knowledge, however. Some periods have been more intensively studied than others, while certain aspects of parliamentary culture are understudied. The writing of Scottish parliamentary history will continue to offer rich possibilities in future.

Questions of Sovereignty: Redefining Politics in Scotland?

AbstractThe issue of sovereignty has never been resolved in Scotland. The 1998 Scotland Act, creating the Scottish Parliament affirmed that the Westminster Parliament is sovereign, but this is disputed. In practice, the issue was left largely in abeyance as sovereignty was seen as an outdated concept. The Scottish independence referendum of 2014 and the UK Brexit referendum of 2016 both brought back the question of sovereignty in stark terms. Analysis of data from the British Election Study of 2019 with regard to (a) the right of Scottish self‐determination, and (b) the right of a UK‐wide majority to take Scotland out of the EU, allows us to identify ‘sovereigntists’ and ‘unionists’. Sovereigntists, on both dimensions, now constitute a majority. A smaller group of unionists reject both positions. There remains a group of ‘semi‐sovereigntists’ who accept Scottish self‐determination, but also that the UK as a whole should decide on Brexit. Controlling for the social and political factors, Scots are increasingly polarised around issues of sovereignty, which have become central to contemporary Scottish politics.

AUDIT Scotland 10 years on: explaining how funding decisions link to increased risk for drug related deaths among the poor

Purpose In response to Scottish Government assertions that an ageing cohort explained increases in drug-related death (DRD), the previous research by the authors established that socio-economic inequalities were additional risk factors explaining the significant increases in DRD in Scotland. This paper aims to subject the drug policy narratives provided by Scottish Government in relation to the governance of drug and alcohol services to critical scrutiny and reveal the social consequences of the funding formula used to direct funding to services via NHS Scotland Boards, and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADP). Design/methodology/approach The paper provides a narrative review in the context of the AUDIT Scotland reports “Drug and Alcohol Services in Scotland” from 2009 and follow-up report published in 2019. The authors refer to the recommendations made in the 2009 report on effectiveness of drug and alcohol services and subject Scottish Government funding processes, and governance of drug and alcohol services to critical scrutiny. Findings This analysis provides robust evidence that Scottish Government funding processes and governance of drug and alcohol services increased risk to vulnerable drug users and document evidence that link these risk factors to increased DRD. Research limitations/implications The authors have focused on Scottish drug policy and drug services funding. Alcohol services funding is not subject to critical analysis due to limitations of time and resources. Practical implications This case study investigates AUDIT Scotland’s recommendations in 2009 to Scottish Government to provide researchers, government policy advisors and media with robust critical analysis that links drug policy decisions to increased DRD. Social implications Drug policy governance by the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland since 2009 have disproportionately affected communities of interest and communities of place already experiencing stark inequalities. These budget decisions have resulted in widening inequalities, and increased DRD within communities in Scotland. The authors conclude that in diverging politically and ideologically from Public Health England, and the Westminster Parliament, Scottish Government drug policy and financial governance of drugs services contributes to increased risk factors explaining DRD within deprived communities. Originality/value The 2009 AUDIT Scotland recommendations to Scottish Government subject their governance of drug services to critical scrutiny. This analysis provides a counterpoint to the explanations that rising DRD are unconnected to drug policy and drug services governance.

Preservative or Transformative? Theorizing the U.K. Constitution Using Comparative Method

Abstract The complexities of the United Kingdom’s decision to withdraw from the European Union while simultaneously honoring its prior commitments to its decentralized, autonomous, and constituent regions have put constitutional questions back on the map. The dominant approach analyzes these questions premised on the “preservative” view of the constitution. This view prioritizes the stability and continuity of the institutions in Westminster (Parliament) and Whitehall (central executive). However, the preservative view of the constitution is theoretically and practically deficient as it cannot give an account of the multipolar and decentralized developments of the past twenty years. Another interpretation regards the legal and political changes to the constitution as “transformative.” This view accentuates the fragility of the U.K. constitution due to a plurality of constitutional rules and the ongoing processes of devolution of powers within multilevel systems of government. This Article discusses that evolution of the U.K. constitution through the prism of comparative constitutional law and its appropriate methodology. The preservative model of the constitution favors a universalist method, whereas the transformative model requires a contextualist method. I argue that the experience of supranational (European Union) and infranational (devolution) power sharing has fundamentally altered the United Kingdom’s central constitutional concepts. To stabilize its fragmentary forces, the United Kingdom needs to adopt concepts that reflect the state as divided, the constitution as transitional, sovereignty as an attribute of the state rather than Parliament, and democracy as conflicted. Nothing less than the future of the United Kingdom as a state is at stake.

Post-Legislative Scrutiny in Europe: how the oversight on implementation of legislation by parliaments in Europe is getting stronger

ABSTRACT This article analyses parliamentary practices in conducting Post-Legislative Scrutiny (PLS) in Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom against four categories of parliamentary approach in PLS. Parliaments as passive scrutinisers have few parliamentary structures, capacity and procedures for PLS and no parliamentary PLS reports. Parliaments as informal scrutinisers have few parliamentary structures and procedures but are stronger in terms of own parliamentary outputs on PLS. Parliaments as formal scrutinisers have more developed structures and procedures on PLS but remain weak in terms of outputs and follow up. Parliaments as independent scrutinisers are strong in terms of structures and procedures as well as in terms of reports and follow up. The case-studies indicate that the federal parliament of Germany is a passive scrutiniser in PLS, the parliament of Italy an informal scrutiniser, the parliaments of Sweden and France formal scrutinisers, and the UK Westminster and Swiss parliaments independent scrutinisers.