Constitution

Question 1

What are some developments and changes to the constitution?

Answer 1

1997 - Devolution
1998 - HRA
1999 - House of Lords (all but 92 hereditary peers)
2000 - Freedom of information
2005 - Constitutional Reform Act (provision for Supreme court to be established)
2011- Fixed Terms Parliament Act
2014 - House of Lords - (members can now resign)
2015 - Recall of MPs act
2015 - EVEL
2016 - Scotland Act
2017 - Burns Report
2019 - BJ’s failed attempt to prorogue parliament (R v Miller)
2020 - Brexit

Question 2

Examples for the 2015 Recall of MPs act

Answer 2

Fiona Onasanta (Petersborough, 2019)
Peter Bone (Wellingborough, 2023) > sexual misconduct

Question 3

Examples of Devolution

Answer 3

• Scotland Act 1998 was used in 2023 to block the Gender Recognition Act passed in the Scottish Parliament
• In 2016, Greater Manchester became the first local authority to have granted power to control its own budget for health and social care
• Local Government Act 2000 gave local government the power to hold a devolution referendum

Question 4

What is the turnout in mayoral election?

Answer 4

Low - showing that people are not bothered to have a mayor in thier local area

London: 2024 - 40.5%, 2021 - 42.2%
Manchester: 2024 - 32%, 2021 - 34.7%

Question 5

What is EVEL and why was it repealed?

Answer 5

English votes for English Laws - West Lothian questions only asked and answered by English MPs, while questions about devolved areas should only include decision making in groups of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Repealed because MPs of constituencies near the boundaries complained for the unfairness while discussing issues in devolved bodies

Question 6

Examples of debates on reform

Answer 6

• BJ’s repeal of the Fixed-term Parliament Act 2011 -> Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, has seen the return to the convention of PM’s choosing when to call a general election, now has become a political decision where the government wants to choose the best time for them.
• In April 2024, the human rights charity Amnesty International accused the UK parliament of “deliberately destabilising” human rights through the Safety of Rwanda 2024 and the Public Orders Act 2023
• Lord Clarke warned that the Safety of Rwanda Bill would move the UK towards an ‘elective dictatorship’. After the Supreme Court ruled that the Rwanda scheme was unlawful as Rwanda was an unsafe country, the government simply passed a bill to state that Rwanda is a safe country.
  -During the COVID-19 pandemic, could be argued that PM BJ curtailed ‘individual rights’ through the Coronavirus Act 2020 which gave the government ‘emergency powers’ and led to our freedom of assembly and movement being restricted due to lockdown restrictions.

Question 7

How did BJ’s partygate scandal show that the government is being held accountable by being checked regularly?

Answer 7

Partygate exposed the power by the former PM and his cabinet during lockdown, showing that the function of government is not transparent. However, the liason committee later grilled BJ about Partygate and held him accountable for his misconduct and midleading Parliament during the investigation.
- This shows that the government is checked by the Parliament, which is more powerful to balance the power to prevent ultra vires

Question 8

Example of Supreme Court being weak as debate for reform?

Answer 8

The constitutional reform act 2005 established the UK Supreme Court by separating the judiciary from the Law Lords in the HoL to maintain judicial independence and judicial neutrality.
- However, the Supreme court is relatively weak and not powerful to hold other branches accountable due to parliamentary sovereignty and the uncodified + unentrenched constitution which has no legal power to enforce other branches to accept rulings.

Question 9

Arguments for and against Bill of rights

Answer 9

Yes:
- protection of rights
- clarity and certainty
- Modernisation of democracy
- International standards
No:
- Parliamentary sovereignty
- flexibility
- Common law tradition

Question 10

Examples of SC cases

Answer 10

• S.C declared the 2004 Civil Partnership Act incompatible with HRA in 2018, government amended act in 2019
• Shamima Begum had her citizenship on the basis of national security in 2019, after she left England to join IS in 2015. Her appeal to regain her citizenship and entry to the UK have been unsucessful multiple times and most recently Court of Appeal in 2024 upheld the previous decision of denying her entry again
• In 2018, the UK Supreme Court ruled in favour of Ashers Baking company (run by christians) a NI bakery, over a “gay marriage cake” case. The bakery refused to make a cake with a message supporting same-sex marriage, claiming it was discriminatory. The court ruled that the refusal was based on the bakery’s owners objection to the message on the cake, not the customer’s sexual orientation. The court held the bakery owners were entitled to refuse to express a message that conflicted with their religious beliefs be used
• Recent UK Supreme Court ruling on definition of ‘woman’ defined based on biological facts under the Equality Act 2010