House of Lords Act (1999)
- reduced the number of hereditary peers to 92
- more life peers (those appointed due to there expertise)
- House of Lords could no longer block anything in the elected governments manifesto
Constitutional Reform Act (2005)
- divides the job of lord chancellor into justice secretary, Lord chief justice, and Legislature Lord Speaker
what does the Justice secretary/Lord chancellor do?
would oversee appointments, administrate the court and prison services
what did the Lord Chief Justice do?
- president over the courts of England and Wales
- head of the judiciary and chief justice
what did the Legislature Lord Speaker do?
- presides over the House of Lords
- elected by members by an alternative vote system
Scotland Act, Government of Wales Act and Northern Ireland Act (1998)
- devolved the government and gave each nation more power over itself
- created the West Lothian question
Greater London Authority Act (1999)
- provides elections for the mayor of London and its assembly
- established the TFL and the MPA (Metropolitan Police Authority)
political parties, elections and referendums act (2000)
- created an independent Electoral Commission
- tracked government funding by requiring statements from parties
- prohibited funding from foreign and anonymous people
- restrictions on campaign expenditure
Human rights act (1998)
set out the Human rights in UK constitution such as right to life and the freedom of expression
Freedom of information Act (2000)
- public authorities are made by law to publish certain information about their activity
- public are entitled to request information from public authorities
Wright committee reforms
-35 days to debate on issues raised by backbencher MPs
- introduced e-petitions and any one with over 10k signatures gets a response, 100k it’s debated
- e-petition website erected in 2011 and tweaked in 2015
Recall of MPs Act (2015)
-allows for an MP to be removed if they are convicted of a crime and given a sentence of less than 12 months
- petition is sent out to all constituents and if 10% sign within 6 weeks there is a bi-election
Fixed-term parliaments Act (2011)
- took away the prerogative power to call a general election when it suited them
- set the date for the election at first Saturday in may every 5 years
- However, if 2/3s of MPs have lost confidence there can be an early election
Succession to the Crown Act (2013)
- made succession to the crown gender neutral
- ended the law that marriage to a catholic removed succession
House of Lords Pros - Cons
Pros
- removed many hereditary peers
- government could now enforce their manifesto more easily
Cons
- still left 92 hereditary peers in the House of Lords
- didn’t do anything to fix the issue with the amount of people in House of Lords
Devolution Pros - Cons
pros
- allowed the devolved governments to have more power over local problems
cons
- reduced stability because countries now wanted more independence
- produced the West Lothian question
Judiciary pros - cons
Pros
- MPs stay aware of their obligations to their constituents
- implemented new independent judges
cons
- recall can be manipulated and used for party political ends
Human Rights Act pros - cons
pros
-ensured that all the Human Rights were written in statute law in UK constitution
cons
- most would have held up in a court regardless
