Download Free Government Response To The Report Of The Joint Committee On The Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Government Response To The Report Of The Joint Committee On The Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill and write the review.

This response to the Joint Committee is published on the same day as the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill. This Bill is the result of the process of deliberation that started with the publication of the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, and adopts a number of the proposals set out there
This response to the Public Administration Select Committee is published on the same day as the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill. This Bill is the result of the process of deliberation that started with the publication of the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, and adopts a number of the proposals set out there
The draft Bill and White Paper were included in Cm. 7342-I,II,III (ISBN 9780101734226) which follows the Green paper issued in July 2007, Cm. 7170 (ISBN 9780101717021) and various other Governance of Britain papers
This report examines the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill (contained in Cm. 7342-I,II,III, ISBN 9780101734226) to see how far its provisions put into effect the recommendations of its predecessor Committee's 5th report on the constitutional role of the Attorney General (HC 306, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780215035462). The draft Bill makes no substantial change to the current situation. The Attorney General remains both chief legal adviser to the Government and a Government minister. There is no justification for giving the Attorney General power to halt investigations by the Serious Fraud Office. The Committee favours a statutory duty being placed on ministers to observe the rule of law. The accountability of the post remains limited. Public confidence in the post could be enhanced if it were to become the practice to publish all or most of the Attorney General's advice where it is referred to in support of a political case being put forward by the Government. The problem of being both legal adviser and a minister is difficult to resolve, but the Committee believes that transparency require s separating the political functions from the legal functions. The Draft Bill fails to achieve the purpose given to constitutional reform by the Prime Minister: it gives greater power to the Executive; and it does not add to transparency.
In this report the Public Administration Select Committee makes constructive suggestions for improving the Government's proposals for put forward in the March 2008 white paper on constitutional renewal and the accompanying draft bill. At present many important ministerial powers - the 'prerogative powers' may be excercised without parliamentary approval. The Committee's aim here is to open up the secret powers of the Executive to parliamentary scrutiny and approval. The proposals for the Civil Service were welcomed and it is felt that the purpose of legislation would be to protect the core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity, impartiality - and its key characteristics - recruitment on merit and the ability to serve governments from across the political spectrum. Suggestions to strengthen the draft further in this respect were made. The Government's proposals on the other prerogative powers were felt to be disappointingly limited and felt to contain loopholes which would allow the Exectuive to bypass Parliament at their discretion. The Committee found that the Government's draft resolution on war-making powers leaves too much discretion in the hands of the Prime Minister and describe the need to seek retrospective approval for urgent military operations as the price of democracy. The Committee also found, in relation to the making of treaties, that the Government's proposed Parliamentary safeguard could be ignored at will. They also urge swift progress on legislation on the procedures for issueing passports and a wider review of the prerogative powers.
This White Paper contains a three volume set of documents (Cm. 7342-I/II/III, ISBN 9780101734226) and is part of the Governance of Britain series examining constitutional renewal. In July 2007, the Governance of Britain Green Paper was published (ISBN 9780101717021) which set out the Government's vision and proposals for constitutional renewal, calling on the public, Parliament and other organisations to submit views. The result of the consultation is the publication of this White Paper. Volume 1 covers the substantive issues of constitutional renewal, including: the Government's policy proposals; the Attorney General; judicial appointments; treaties; the civil service; war powers; flag flying and other policies, such as the reform of the Intelligence and Security Committee; a wider review of the Royal Perogative; passports; the National Audit Office; public appointments and Church of England appointments. Volume 2, presents the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, with Volume 3, setting out an analysis of the consultations. For specific publications on a number of the issues examined here, see Cm. 7239, War Powers & Treaties - ISBN 9780101723923; Cm. 7210, Judicial Appointments, ISBN 9780101721028; Cm. 7192, Role of the Attorney General, ISBN 9780101719223.