UK constitution

• The sources of the UK Constitution include statutes, common law, constitutional conventions, royal prerogative and authoritative works.
• how is the UK constitution described?

  • unitary
  • parliamentary sovereignty
  • rule of law
  • uncodified
• what was the House of Lords Act 1999?

  reduced the number of hereditary peers to 92
• what was the constitutional reform act 2005?

  created a separate supreme court leading to greater separation of powers

  removed the need for law lords
• what was the House of Lords Reform Act 2012?

  proposed that a reformed HOL should comprise 80% elected members and 20% nominated. the bill was abandoned
• what was the referendums act 1997?

  allowed referendums to be held in scotland and wales over the creation of devolved assemblies - both said yes
• what was the greater london authority act 1999?

  allowed for the setting up of a directly elected mayor for London
• what was the 2011 Fixed term parliaments act?

  required the PM to have the support of two thirds of the MPs to call an early general election

  national referendum to change the electoral system from FPTP but it was defeated
• what was the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Act 1998?

  set up elected devolved assemblies/parliaments in these countries.
• what was the human rights act 1998?

  incorporated the ECHR into UK law which reduced the number of human rights cases being taken to the European Court of Human Rights
• what was the freedom of information act 2000?

  Legislation in the UK that provides public access to information held by public authorities.
• what was the Equality Act 2010?

  brought together 116 different laws into one document to combat discrimination.

  introduced the 9 protected characteristics
• what are the 9 protected characteristics?

  age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation
• what was the Data Protection Act 2018?

  UK government‘s implementation of the GDPR which was required for all EU member states. It places strict controls on the handling and saving of personal data by government and private bodies
• what do some people want added to the 9 protected characteristics?

  menopause protection
• give an argument to suggest that the UK constitution does protect rights well

  • equality act 2000 - contains 116 laws to prevent discrimination which is easily referenced and not open to interpretation
• give an argument to suggest that the UK constitution does protect rights well

  • in the uk society there is a lot of commitment to rights and so discrimination is taken seriously and reported
• give an argument to suggest that the UK constitution does protect rights well

  • separation of powers means that there is a judiciary not influenced by political bias and a non-politicised police force should mean that everyone is treated fairly
• give an argument to suggest that the UK constitution doesn’t protect rights well

  • the framework of rights protection is vulnerable because the government could instate its proposed ‘Bill of Rights’ which may not include the protection of certain groups
• give an argument to suggest that the UK constitution doesn’t protect rights well

  • UK government doesn’t like to be dictated to by the European courts because of parliamentary sovereignty and so may scrap the ECHR
• give an argument to suggest that the UK constitution doesn’t protect rights well

  • Brexit is removing certain non-discrimination, migrant and labour rights previously included in the ECHR