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By Lisa James, on 13 March 2025
Today the Constitution Unit publishes a wide-ranging new report. The Constitutional Landscape: Options for Reform briefly summarises 31 areas of constitutional policy, describing the current state of affairs and the options for reform. In this post Lisa James, one of the report’s authors, explores its contents.
By Meg Russell, on 17 February 2025
Complaints about declining standards of government scrutiny by parliament have been commonplace in recent times – particularly during the troubled years of Brexit and Covid. But how can such claims be objectively assessed, and crucially, have scrutiny standards since recovered? Constitution Unit Director Meg Russell addressed these questions in a recently published journal article, summarised here. She concludes that there is significant cause for concern, and that standards actually worsened under Rishi Sunak, once the Brexit and Covid crises were over. To reverse the decline, both government and parliament need to act.
By Meg Russell, on 28 January 2025
Constitution Unit Director Meg Russell is one of the authors of a new UK in a Changing Europe report, The Brexit Files: From Referendum to Reset, which was published today. In this post, Meg examines the role of parliament in the withdrawal process, and argues that the sidelining of parliament that was seen throughout the Brexit process continued throughout the Johnson and Sunak premierships. She concludes that MPs must work to ensure that the current government’s commitment to greater parliamentary scrutiny is given full effect and parliament’s reputation with the public is rebuilt.
By The Constitution Unit, on 13 December 2024
The 1902 ‘Balfour reforms’ established a core feature of the UK House of Commons: ministers’ control of its agenda. In a new article, summarised in this blogpost, Tom Fleming, Simon Hix, and Radoslaw Zubek explore how this important change came about, and question the idea that it was adopted with cross-party consensus.
By The Constitution Unit, on 6 December 2024
The National Audit Office (NAO) is now over 40 years old, but it has its origins in the nineteenth century. In their new book, Henry Midgley, Laurence Ferry and Aileen Murphie offer an overview of the constitutional, political and human legacies of the NAO’s predecessor, the Exchequer and Audit Department, followed by a close examination of the NAO’s leadership and decision-making since its inception. They conclude that any debate about the organisation’s future is in fact a question about how the UK should be working to ensure democracy and good government.
