Evaluate The View That New Labour’s Constitutional Reforms Had A Positive And Significant Impact On The UK Co

Question 1

P1: House of Lords For

Answer 1

1. The House of Lords Act 1999 removed all but 92 hereditary peers and replaced them with life peers.
2. Undermined the hereditary basis of the House of Lords and removed its in-built Conservative majority, with crossbenchers ensuring no single party can get a majority. The HoL is now more independent of the executive and better able to limit the power of the government (TB was defeated 4 times in the HoC, but 353 in the HoL.
3. in 2001 ten defeats in the House Lords led the government to remove incitement to religious hatred as an offence from its anti-terrorism legislation.

Question 2

P1; Lords is more professional

Answer 2

1. Therefore effective at scrutiny of the government as a consequence.
2. Lord Andrew Adonis, for example, is a Labour peer who served as Secretary of State for transport under Gordon Brown.
3. Many are specialists, James Timpson, for example, pioneered a progressive employment model as CEO of the Timpson Group by hiring ex-offenders to help them reintegrate into society.
4. His first-hand experience in reducing reoffending through employment and
   rehabilitation and he has also been able to support the government since being made Minister of State for Prisons.

Question 3

P1: Against

Answer 3

1. HoL is still insignificant, continues to be unelected and therefore undemocratic.
2. New Labour attempted a two stage plan to reform the House of Lords. The first would remove all hereditary peers and the second would replace the Lords with an elected second
   chamber, stage 1 was not fully enacted and stage 2 didn’t happen because of a lack of agreement, limited impact.
3. Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 and Salisbury Convention.
4. This was used 3 times by the Blair government, including to pass the Hunting Act 2004, which banned hunting with dogs.

Question 4

P2: Devolution

Answer 4

1. Scotland was given the most powers out of all of the devolved bodies, due to its strong nationalist movement. Including control over most public services; health, education,
   justice, agriculture and most transport.
   The powers reserved for Westminster were listed.
2. Having a positive and significant impact on the constitution first
   because they created governments closer to the people and therefore improved democracy.
3. This can be seen in particular in Scotland, in which the population is more left wing than in
   the rest of the UK. This has led to the election of a left wing SNP government that has introduced policies including free prescription charges, free tuition fees and a higher top
   rate of income tax than in the rest of the UK.

Question 5

P2: Devolution against

Answer 5

1. Devolution asymmetric power and no English Parliament.
2. Different citizens have different levels of representation, threaten unity of the UK.

Question 6

P2: Devolution More reforms were added.

Answer 6

1.further reforms had to be introduced by Conservative
governments in 2010 to devolve further power.
2. Wales started with far fewer powers than Scotland or Northern Ireland, as there was little nationalist sentiment in Wales and the 1997 referendum on Welsh devolution was very
close; a majority of 50.5% on a 50% turnout. At first, Wales only had the Welsh Assembly that had no legislative powers or 1st minister. It
was only granted administrative devolution.
3. Can create tensions. West Lothian Question asks why Scottish MPs should be able to vote on English matters in the UK Parliament that don’t affect their constituents, when English MPs can’t do
the same in the Scottish Parliament.

Question 7

P3: Human Rights Act 1998

Answer 7

1. HRA enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, in effect from 2000, rights could be defended in UK courts rather than having to go to Strasbourg.
   The rights included the right to life, right to a fair trial, right to privacy
   and a family life, prohibition of torture.
2. Created a rights based culture. Joint Committee on Human Rights to scrutinise bills and ensure they are compatible, demonstrating the ‘persuasive influence’ of the HRA.
3. A v Secretary of State for the Home Department, part of The Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was declared incompatible with Articles 5 and 14 of the human
   rights act by permitting the detention of suspected international terrorists in a way that discriminated on the grounds of nationality or immigration status. The Prevention of
   Terrorism Act 2005 was amended by parliament as a result.

Question 8

P3: HRA Against (Can be repealed)

Answer 8

1. It is not entrenched and can be repealed by a simple act of Parliament.
2. The Illegal Migration Bill, HS Suella Braverman on 7th March 2023 with a section 19 note stating that there was a likelihood the provisions
   of the bill would be incompatible with the Human Rights Act and international law but that the government wanted to proceed with it
   nonetheless. Can explicitly prevent the SC from using judicial review.

Question 9

P3: HRA Against (favour undeserving people).

Answer 9

1. Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric who had advocated the use of violence to promote the Islamist cause and had spent some time in British jails, was wanted by the security services to be deported to Jordan, where he was wanted for trial.
2. His legal advisers managed to delay this for 8 years on the grounds that he
   might be tried using evidence obtained through torture, a breach of the HRA.