The purpose of the Bill is to: redistribute power away from the centralised state by improving civil liberties, strengthening Parliament and making the executive more accountable to the people it serves.

The main elements of the Bill include:

• Placing the Civil Service on a statutory footing, by enshrining in law its core values of impartiality, integrity, honesty and objectivity, making provision for the appointment of special advisers and establishing an Independent Commission for the Civil Service.

• Giving MPs the final say on all treaties by placing in statute a requirement that they be laid before Parliament for 21 days before ratification and specifying the legal effects of a negative vote by the Commons or Lords.

• Reforming the role of the Attorney General, who will no longer be able to give a direction to prosecutors in individual cases,  save in certain exceptional circumstances when the Attorney General will need to report to Parliament The Attorney General will be required to report to Parliament annually on the exercise of his/her functions in any event;

• Reducing the role of the Lord Chancellor in judicial appointments below the level of High Court and removing the Prime Minister from the process of appointing Supreme Court judges, removing the requirement for the Lord Chief Justice to consult or obtain the agreement of the Lord Chancellor in exercising certain functions and providing compensating measures to enable the Lord Chancellor to discharge his duty to maintain the effectiveness of the overall justice system;

• Removing restrictions on protests around Parliament by repealing the requirement to give notice of demonstrations in the designated area and removing the offence of holding such a demonstration without the authorisation of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

The main benefits of the Bill will be to:

• Enshrine in legislation the core values of the Civil Service - impartiality, integrity, honesty and objectivity. – thus guarding against politicisation and  ensuring that a future Government could not make changes to these core values without proper Parliamentary debate and scrutiny.

• Enhance public confidence in the role of the Attorney General by increasing the ability of Parliament to hold the Attorney General to account and reinforcing the independence of the prosecuting authorities.

• Reduce the role of the  Executive in the judicial appointments, and strengthen the independence of the Judiciary.

• Strengthen the role of Parliament  by placing in statute Parliament’s right to scrutinise treaties prior to ratification and ensure that a vote against ratification of a treaty should have legal effect;

• Uphold civil liberties by ensuring that people’s right to protest is

All of the proposals have been subject to a full and thorough consultation process and responses have been carefully analysed and taken into account in the draft constitutional renewal bill which was published in draft on 25 March 2008. The Government has invited Parliament to undertake pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft bill and associated documents. A Joint Committee on the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill met on 6 May 2008. To comment on the draft bill see below, or alternatively, please write by 18 July to:

The Governance of Britain: Constitutional Renewal
Ministry of Justice
6.24 Selborne House
54-60 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QW

Email: Governance@justice.gsi.gov.uk

In addition to the proposals in the bill, the Government is also undertaking the following activity

• The Government believes that the ability to exercise the prerogative power to deploy the armed forces without requiring any formal parliamentary agreement is an outdated state of affairs in a modern democracy. It has proposed that a detailed House of Commons resolution should set out the processes Parliament should follow in order to approve any commitment of Armed Forces into armed conflict.

The Government is committed to ensuring that prerogative powers, where appropriate, are put on a statutory basis and made more closely subject to the mandate of Parliament. The Government is reviewing the remaining executive prerogative powers and will consider the outcome of that work and how best to proceed.

• The Government will consult on a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, to give people in the UK a clear idea of what we can expect from public authorities and from each other, and a framework for giving effect to our common values;

• The Government has committed to consulting on moving the voting day for Parliamentary elections and local elections in England and Wales to the weekend to help address barriers to voting. Depending on the outcome of this process, Government would seek to legislate in this area.