UK constitution Changes

• The UK constitution has undergone changes since 1997
• Changes to the UK constitution since 1997

  • House of Lords reforms
  • Electoral reforms
  • Devolution
  • Human Rights Act
  • Supreme Court
• The Labour government from 1997-2010 aimed to modernize the constitution, increase democratization and participation, decentralize power, and safeguard people's rights
• Devolution in the UK

  • Quasi-federal but asymmetrical system
  • Powers devolved to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but not England
  • Devolution aimed at preventing Scottish independence and cutting demands for it
• The devolution settlements have had mixed success in achieving their aims
• The West Lothian question, where Scottish MPs can vote on issues that don't impact their constituents, has not been fully resolved
• Devolution in Wales


  • Weaker support and powers compared to Scotland
  • Welsh Assembly/Parliament has control over areas like health, social services, agriculture, but not criminal justice or tax/borrowing powers
• Devolution in Northern Ireland

  • Aimed to unite unionist and nationalist communities through power-sharing
  • Northern Ireland Assembly has control over areas like criminal justice, corporation tax, health, education
• The Northern Ireland Assembly has had periods of dysfunction due to difficulties in getting agreement between the different communities
• The UK has seen more proportional electoral systems introduced, like the additional member system and single transferable vote, but first-past-the-post is still used for general elections
• The Jenkins Commission recommended moving to an 'AV Plus' system for general elections, but this was not implemented
• The House of Lords reforms ended the dominance of hereditary peers, but the chamber remains very large and unelected
• The Human Rights Act 1998 incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, giving people rights like freedom of expression and a fair trial
• The Supreme Court was established in 2009, replacing the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords as the UK's highest court
• Further devolution has occurred under the coalition government and since 2015, including more powers for Wales and Scotland
• There are debates around whether the UK constitution has changed enough since 1997, whether the changes are likely to be permanent, and whether more fundamental reform is needed
• The UK constitution has a significant issue with having a massive unelected body (the House of Lords)
• Efforts have been made over the years to weaken the power of the House of Lords
• It still seems odd in a modern representative democracy to have an appointed chamber of such unwieldy size without reforming it
• The Human Rights Act of 1998 incorporated the European Convention of Human Rights into UK law
• Rights given by the Human Rights Act

  • Right to thought and expression
  • Right to assembly
  • Right to a fair trial
  • Freedom from degrading treatment
  • Freedom from discrimination
  • Right to privacy
  • Right to marry and to family life
• All future laws had to comply with the Human Rights Act
• In 2005, an exception was made for those suspected of terrorism in terms of their right to liberty and security with the introduction of control orders
• The Human Rights Act is in a tenuous position, particularly with the UK leaving the EU, and the Conservative party has talked about getting rid of it
• The Supreme Court was created in 2009 from the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005
• The Supreme Court


  Highest court of appeal in the UK for civil and criminal cases except for criminal cases in Scotland, which has its own independent criminal justice system
• The Supreme Court took over the role previously done by the Law Lords who sat in the House of Lords
• The creation of the Supreme Court reduced the power of the Lord Chancellor, who had been in all three branches of government
• There have been clashes between the Supreme Court and Boris Johnson in 2019 over the programming of Parliament, and the future of the Supreme Court is in some doubt
• The 2010-2015 coalition government involved the Liberal Democrats, who are normally the greatest pushing force behind constitutional reform
• The Conservative party is not a natural party of devolution, but they supported the 2011 vote to give the Welsh Assembly greater powers and law-making abilities
• The direction of devolution has been towards greater decentralization of power
• The Fixed-term Parliaments Act, introduced in 2011, has been widely criticized and is likely to be reversed by the current Conservative government
• The Conservative backbenchers blocked the Liberal Democrats' push to change the House of Lords to be mainly elected, and the Liberal Democrats retaliated by unblocking the Conservative plans to reduce the number of MPs to 600
• The Liberal Democrats proposed changing the voting system for general elections to the Alternative Vote, but this was rejected in a 2011 referendum
• The Conservative party wanted to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights, but this was blocked by the Liberal Democrats
• The 2014 Scottish independence referendum resulted in 55% of Scottish voters saying no to independence, but this led to greater devolution
• The 2016 Scotland Act gave the Scottish Parliament complete control over income tax, 50% of VAT, and control over key welfare benefits and franchise rules
• The "English Votes for English Laws" policy was an attempt to address the West Lothian question, but it has not fully solved the issue
• The Recall of MPs Act gives a legal means for constituents to trigger a by-election if their MP has misbehaved, but there are still areas where this could be expanded further