Constitution Committee

The Constitution Committee is a cross-party select committee of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Committee’s remit is “to examine the constitutional implications of all public bills coming before the House; and to keep under review the operation of the constitution”.^[1] There is no consolidated written constitution in the United Kingdom, but the Committee has defined the constitution as “the set of laws, rules and practices that create the basic institutions of the state, and its component and related parts, and stipulate the powers of those institutions and the relationship between the different institutions and between those institutions and the individual”.^[2]

The Committee has two main functions:

examining public bills for matters of constitutional significance; and
investigating wider constitutional issues.^[3]

Scrutiny

The function of the Committee is not to resist constitutional change, but to ensure that when such change takes places through legislation, this occurs as the result of a conscious decision of Parliament, reached where possible after informed debate.

When the Committee looks at a bill, it asks if the bill raises issues of principle affecting a principal part of the constitution. If the Committee thinks it does, it may request information from the minister responsible for the bill or seek advice more widely. The Committee can simply publish the correspondence with the minister, or publish a report on the bill where this is thought to be necessary or desirable. These reports inform the deliberations of the House of Lords on the bill in question.

Recent scrutiny reports have looked at the following bills:

The Committee also used to carry out pre-legislative scrutiny of Welsh Legislative Competence Orders. This function ceased following the referendum in Wales in March 2011 by which the Assembly was given power to legislate directly. Examples of scrutiny reports on Welsh Legislative Competence Orders include:

Inquiries

The Committee fulfils the second limb of its remit by carrying out longer investigative inquiries into wider constitutional issues. Once the Committee has chosen a subject, it engages a specialist adviser (an external expert in the field) and written submissions are invited. The Committee then takes oral evidence from a range of witnesses, including government ministers, and can also undertake visits.

The Committee then publishes a report based on the evidence received, which makes recommendations aimed principally at the Government. The Government is obliged to produce a formal written response to the Committee’s recommendations. The report and the Government response are then usually debated in the House of Lords.

Recent inquiries have looked into:

Current ongoing inquiries are listed on the Committee's webpage

Membership

As of 26 May 2016, the membership of the committee is as follows:^[4]

Member	Party
Lord Lang of Monkton (Chairman)		Conservative
Lord Bieth		Liberal Democrats
Lord Brennan		Labour
Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde		Labour
Lord Hunt of Wirral		Conservative
Lord Judge		Crossbench
Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market		Conservative
Lord Maclennan of Rogart		Liberal Democrats
Lord Morgan		Labour
Lord Norton of Louth		Conservative
Lord Pannick		Crossbench
Baroness Taylor of Bolton		Labour

Previous chairmen were Baroness Jay of Paddington, Lord Norton of Louth (2001–2004), Lord Holme of Cheltenham (2004–2008), and Lord Goodlad (2008–2010).

References

↑ House of Lords Constitution Committee (11 July 2001). "Reviewing the Constitution: Terms of Reference and Method of Working - Chapter 1: Introduction".
↑ House of Lords Constitution Committee (11 July 2001). "Reviewing the Constitution: Terms of Reference and Method of Working - Chapter 2: What is the Constitution?".
↑ House of Lords Constitution Committee. "Constitution Committee - role".
↑ House of Lords (25 May 2016). "Hansard: Deputy Chairmen of Committees".

External links

Constitution Committee website

Current Parliamentary Committees of the United Kingdom

Commons

Departmental	Business, Innovation and Skills Communities and Local Government Culture, Media and Sport Defence Education Exiting the European Union International Trade Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Foreign Affairs Health Home Affairs International Development Justice Northern Ireland Affairs Political and Constitutional Reform Science and Technology Scottish Affairs Transport Treasury Welsh Affairs Work and Pensions

Topical	Arms Export Controls Environmental Audit European Scrutiny Petitions Public Accounts Public Administration Regulatory Reform Statutory Instruments Women and Equalities

General	Panel of Chairs Public bill committee Delegated Legislation Committee European Committees Northern Ireland Grand Committee Regional Affairs Committee Scottish Grand Committee Welsh Grand Committee English Grand Committee

Internal	Administration Finance and Services Backbench Business Liaison Members' Expenses Procedure Selection Standards and Privileges Works of Art

Lords

Topical	Communications Constitution Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Economic Affairs European Union International Relations Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Science and Technology

Private business	Hybrid Instruments Standing Orders Internal: House Liaison Committee Privileges and Conduct Procedure Selection

Domestic	Administration and Works Information Refreshment Works of Art

Joint

Select	Consolidation, &c., Bills Joint Committee on Draft Investigatory Powers Bill Joint Committee on Draft Protection of Charities Bill Human Rights National Security Strategy Joint Committee on Palace of Westminster Statutory Instruments

Statutory

Commons	House of Commons Commission Administration Estimate Audit Members Estimate Members Estimate Audit Public Accounts Commission Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority

Joint	Ecclesiastical Committee Intelligence and Security

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