This subtopic sees the lessons of the Changes under Labour, 1997-2010; Changes under the Cameron-Clegg Coalition, 2010-2015; Major Reforms Undertaken by Governments, 2015-present.

H21 | Changes under Labour, 1997-2010

Under Labour 1997–2010: House of Lords reforms, electoral reform; devolution; Human Rights Act 1998; and the Supreme Court.

• Labour’s Aims for the UK in Constitutional Terms

  • Modernisation

    • Bring the UK Constitution up to date

  • Democratisation

    • Increase participation 

  • Decentralisation

    • Begin devolution and enhance local governments

  • Improving Rights

    • Safeguard and strengthen people’s rights and liberties

• Devolution 

  • The creation of devolved institutions

    • In 1997-1998, we saw referenda being held in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

      • The 1997 Scottish Devolution Referendum on September 11th: ‘Do you agree that there should be a Scottish Parliament as proposed by the Government?’

        • 74.29% voted Yes 

        • 25.71% voted No

    • The 1997 Welsh Devolution Referendum on September 18th: ‘Do you agree that there should be a Welsh Assembly as proposed by the Government?’

      • 50.30% voted Yes

      • 49.70% voted No

    • The 1998 Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement Referendum on May 22nd (although wasn’t directly on whether Northern Ireland should be granted devolved powers but rather if people supported the Good Friday Agreement, the majority of this referendum decided if Northern Ireland would be granted its own assembly): ‘Do you support the agreement reached at the multi-party talks on Northern Ireland and set out in Command Paper 3883?’

      • 71.12% voted Yes 

      • 28.88% voted No

    • These were to see if the people of those countries were in support of the creation of devolved institutions which they were

    • This in turn led to quasi-federalism (legal power is rooted in the centre as Parliament is sovereign but devolution sees some of this power distributed to give those governments more power) that’s asymmetrical (it’s unequal)

  • The problems with devolution  

    • The West Lothian question

      • The West Lothian question was created which is essentially ‘Should Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs who sit in the House of Commons be able to vote on matters that only affect England, while neither they nor English MPs are able to vote on matters that have been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Welsh Assembly (at the time) and Scottish Parliament?’

  • Devolution in Scotland

    • Devolution in Scotland was largely to prevent the growth of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and cut off demands for independence (which in reality, didn’t really work)

    • 74.29% of Scottish voters voted for a Scottish Parliament so they were granted it 

    • The Scottish Parliament uses the Additional Member System (AMS) as their choice of electoral system 

    • Scottish Parliament’s powers

      • Tax varying powers, control of health, social services, education, culture, tourism, sport, criminal justice, agriculture, local government & elections

  • Devolution in Wales

    • Welsh support wasn’t popular

      • 50.30% voted Welsh people voted Yes with a voter turnout being 50.22% which shows support in Wales for devolved powers wasn’t popular

      • That’s why the Welsh Assembly (now Parliament) had less power than Scotland

    • The Welsh Assembly (now Parliament) uses the Additional Member System (AMS) as their choice of electoral system 

    • Welsh Assembly’s powers

      • Control of health, social services, culture, tourism, sport, agriculture, environment, local government, transport, fire services & housing

  • Devolution in Northern Ireland

    • With the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Unionist and Nationalist communities came together to end the Troubles

    • The Northern Ireland Assembly uses the Single Transferable Vote (STV) as their choice of electoral system 

      • This was to make sure their communities were proportionally represented (as there were huge problems with gerrymandering and massive underrepresentation of the Catholic minority in government)

      • This was also to bring about power-sharing in the Northern Ireland Executive

    • The government is headed by a First Minister and a Deputy First Minister who are intended to represent the two coummunties  

    • Northern Ireland Assembly’s powers

      • Control of corporation tax, health, social services, education, culture, tourism, sport, criminal justice, agriculture, environment local government & elections

  • Did Labour achieve its aims for the UK in Constitutional Terms? 

    • Devolution saw a modernisation of the UK Constitution as power was decentralised from Westminster and distributed greatly to the countries of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

• Electoral Reforms

  • More proportional electoral systems were introduced 

    • For the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, they use AMS

    • For the Northern Ireland Assembly, they use STV

    • For London Mayoral elections we used to use the Supplementary Vote (SV) prior to the ‘Election Act 2022’ and now we use FPTP 

    • So the UK now isn’t just purely First Past the Post

  • Jenkins Commission

    • The Independent Commission on the Voting System (simply known as the Jenkins Commission) to reform the voting system in the UK by Roy Jenkins and was set up in December 1997

    • He recommended a shift to Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) which would improve proportionality, extend voter choice, maintain the link between MPs and their constituents & produce a stable government 

    • AV+ combines the Alternative Vote (where candidates are ranked by voters & if a candidate has over 50%, they win but if no one does, the voter who came last’s votes are redistributed to their second choice until there’s a winner) and a party list system (rather than electing one person per area, in Party List systems each area is bigger and elects a group of MPs that closely reflect the way the area voted)

    • But having won a huge majority of 418 seats through FPTP, Labour decided not to carry out the change 

  • Did Labour achieve its aims for the UK in Constitutional Terms? 

    • For the devolved bodies, more proportional representation is used through different electoral systems but for the UK as a whole they failed their aim of democratisation as no change to the current voting system for general elections can be argued for a lower level of participation

• House of Lords Reforms

  • Labour ended the dominance of hereditary peers in the House of Lords

    • This group tended to support the Conservatives and oppose the Labour governments 

  • The ‘House of Lords Act 1999’

    • An important amendment that only allowed 92 hereditary peers to remain members of the Lords for an interim period

    • But for several hundred peers who’d inherited their roles and seats now had such rights removed

  • The House of Lords Appointment Commission (HOLAC)

    • HOLAC was established in 2000

    • This sees peers nominated who aren’t linked to a party and have usually performed a service to the country 

    • The Prime Minister and other party leaders continue to nominate peers for the House of Lords

    • This has ended the traditional Conservative dominance of the House of Lords making it more democratic as they are less bias

  • Its failure

    • This was supposed to be the first step in further reforms 

    • The plan was to eventually see some or all Lords elected to move to greater democratisation

    • But this has failed to be agreed upon 

    • Many people believe the House of Lords is a massive issue as it’s a large unelected body and although Acts have been passed to weaken its power, it still exists and has a say in British legislation 

  • Did Labour achieve its aims for the UK in Constitutional Terms? 

    • This made it more democratic as although it’s still an unelected body, most Lords are now selected on merit and not inheritance

    • You can also say it’s improved citizens’ rights as the Lords will be less biased to Conservative policy and are more open for change and improvements for people’s liberties 

• The Human Rights Act 1998

  • The Labour Party made sure to safeguard and improve people’s rights, thus why they passed the ‘Human Rights Act 1998’

  • It incorporated the European Convention of Human Rights into UK law

  • It gave people rights 

    • For example: 

      • The right to thought and expression

      • The right to assembly

      • The right to a fair trial

      • The freedom from degrading treatment

      • The freedom from discrimination 

      • The right to privacy 

      • The right to marry

  • All future laws from this point on had to comply with this act 

    • There was an exception in 2005 for those suspected of terrorism in terms of their right to liberty and security with the introduction of control orders 

  • Did Labour achieve its aims for the UK in Constitutional Terms? 

    • This most certainly modernised the UK Constitution and improved our rights as now they are protected under the law

• The Supreme Court

  • The ‘Constitutional Reform Act 2005’ led to the creation of a Supreme Court as the highest court of appeal in the UK for civil and criminal cases (except for criminal cases in Scotland) 

  • It was established in 2009

  • This took over the role that was previously done by the Law Lords who sat in the House of Lords

    • This sees the separation of power and reduced power of the Lord Chancellor (who had been in all 3 branches of government) who is now the Justice Secretary 

  • There’s now a split between the legislative and judicial branches 

  • Following a clash in 2019 with Boris Johnson over the proroguing of parliament, the future of the court is in some doubt 

    • Due to Parliament’s sovereignty, the Supreme Court can just as easily be removed as it was made but time will tell if it’ll stay in the UK

  • Did Labour achieve its aims for the UK in Constitutional Terms? 

    • It modernised the UK Constitution as now the Supreme Court was apolitical and decentralised power from Parliament   

• Other Constitutional Reforms under Labour

  • Chairs of committees

    • This reform saw greater pay to chairs of committees in the Parliament to raise their status

    • These chairs were now elected by MPs rather than selected by the leaders of political parties, increasing their independence of mind and action

    • These committees of backbench MPs scrutinise the work of the government 

  • Information and Data Protection

    • The ‘Data Protection Act 1998’ was designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in organised paper filing systems

    • The ‘Freedom of Information Act 2000’ gives citizens the right to see all information held about them by public authorities 

    • An example: The Daily Telegraph requested and was given information about expenses MPs had claimed, opening a large scandal

    • However, information can be withheld if it’d jeopardise national security or the efficient operation of government  

    • But it means the government is now less able to suppress information

H22 | Changes under the Cameron-Clegg Colation, 2010-2015