Flashcards
Labour's post-1997 reforms
Cards in this deck (11)
- 1Devolution for Scotland and WalesDevolution was introduced in Scotland and Wales in 1998 after successful referendums in 1997. Scotland voted for a parliament with tax varying and primary legislative powers. Wales narrowly voted in favour of an assembly with administrative devolution. In 2011, a Welsh referendum voted to grant legislative powers to the Welsh Assembly.
- 2Devolution for N. IrelandThe UK government secured the consent of the people of Northern Ireland for a new devolved assembly in the province in 1998.
- 3Human rights legislation In 1998 the ECHR was incorporated into the UK law in the form of the HRA.For the first time, rights such as freedom of speech and fair trial were written into law. The ECHR is binding on all bodies engaged in 'public business'. It can be enforced by the UK law courts.
- 4The HRA is limited because..it is not binding on the UK Parliament. However, the UK government and Parliament will ignore the ECHR only under exceptional circumstances (such as outbreaks of terrorism) so this is, normally binding.
- 5The Freedom of Information Act was passed in 2000.This gave citizens the right to see documents relating to any public business, as well as information held about themselves. The Act was designed to improve the openness of government and has held a major impact, not least when the inflated expenses claim of many MPs were revealed in 2009-10.
- 6Electoral reformChanges to the UK's electoral systems have come about either in their own right or in conjunction with other reforms that have taken place. For example, the devolved bodies in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are all elected using various proportional electoral systems.
- 7Electoral reform (2)Elections to the Greater London Authority are also conducted under a proportional system. The London mayor is elected every 4 years using the supplementary vote system. Since 1999, UK elections to the European Parliament have been run using a version of the party-list system. Before that time, these elections used the simple plurality (FPTP) system.
- 8Elected mayorsThe first elected mayor- K. Livingstone, took office in 2000. Referendums have been held in towns such as Doncaster and Hartlepool, and, where there was a 'yes' vote, the newly elected mayors assumed a number of authority-wide strategic powers. By 2011, there were 11 such elected mayors in smaller cities.
- 9Reform of the House of LordsA limited reform was passed in 1999 when all but 92 of the hundreds of hereditary peers lost their voting rights. Thus, most of the House of Lords was composed of appointed life peers. This gave the Lords a little more democratic legitimacy, but failed to meet demands for an elected element. Further attempts at reform failed until after the 2010 general election.
- 10Reform of the judiciary In 2005 the Constitutional Reform Act was passed . Its main element was the creation of the Supreme Court.This replaced the system where the highest court of appeal, and therefore the constitutional court, was made up of a selection of 12 judges who were members of the House of Lords. The separated Supreme Court is designed to be more independent from political influences. This, it is hoped, will make it more effective in protecting individual rights and controlling excessive government power. At the same time, it was established that the head of the judiciary should no longer be a member of the government and the appointments system was overhauled to reduce political interference.
- 11The uncompleted elements of the post-1997 reforms Labour has an ambitious reform programme in 1997, but a good deal of it was not accomplished. The main example of incomplete reforms were these:Reform of the House of Lords was modest and there was no agreement on a fully reformed second chamber.
Labour had promised to hold a referendum on full-scale electoral reform for general elections. This was never held.
Labour proposed to introduce devolved assemblies to the English regions, but this policy was destroyed by a negative referendum result in the NE in 2004.
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- Following the 1997 general election, in which Labour came to power, a number of reforms to the UK Constitution were implemented
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- Aimiliareina
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