Evaluate The View That New Labour’s Constitutional Reforms Had A Positive And Significant Impact On The UK Constitution

Introduction

• ‘New Labourʼs Constitutional Reformsʼ refers to a number of reforms introduced by Tony Blairʼs governments, including the Supreme Court, Human Rights Act 1998, House of Lords Reform, Electoral Reform and Devolution

Paragraph Focus

• Para 1 = House of Lords

• Para 2 = Devolution

• Para 3 = Human Rights Act 1998

Para 1 = Weaker Argument - Didn’t Have a Positive and Significant Impact

• New Labour attempted a two stage plan to reform the House of Lords.

• Not only was stage 1 not fully carried out as 92 hereditary peers remained, stage 2 didn’t happen at all

• this shows that the reforms were not significant as they failed to change the unelected nature of the chamber

• this means that the House of Lords remains unelected which contributes to the democratic deficit in Parliament and doesn’t represent the public views

• this contrasts with the House of Commons which is democratically elected through FPTP every 5 yrs

Para 1 = Stronger Argument - Did Have a Positive and Significant Impact

• the House of Lords Act 1999 removed all but 92 hereditary peers and replaced them with life peers

• This can be seen as significant as it undermined the hereditary basis of the House of Lords and removed its in-built Conservative majority, with crossbenchers ensuring no single party can get a majority

• As a consequence, the House of Lords is now more independent of the executive and better able to scrutinise the government

Para 2 = Weaker Argument - Didn’t Have a Positive and Significant Impact

• the asymmetric nature of devolution means that different citizens have different levels or representation snd different laws

• For example, the Scottish and Northern Irish Parliaments control policing, whilst policing in Wales and England is controlled by the UK Parliament

• this shows that reforms didn’t have a positive impact as it created social in cohesion

• this can be seen as undermining equal citizenship in the UK as unequal rights and services creates inequality

• this threatens the unity of the UK as it leads to its citizens having less in common with each other

Para 2 = Stronger Argument - Did Have a Positive and Significant Impact

• in Scotland, which the population is more left wing, this has led to the election of more left wing governments that have introduced policies including free prescription charges

• This can be seen as a significant impact as devolution reduced the sovereignty of Parliament over devolved nations

• this means these reforms created governments closer to the people and therefore improved democracy

• this also means that representative democracy is more effective now that electoral systems and politician are more focused on specific issues

Para 3 = Weaker Argument - Didn’t Have a Positive and Significant Impact

• The HRA may be used to check other laws, but it is not entrenched and could still be repealed by a simple act of parliament

• The government passed The Safety of Rwanda Act in April 2024.

• The act states that Rwanda must be considered a safe country for asylum seekers

• that the Human Rights Act must be put aside to allow for the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda, therefore removing the individual right to judicial review on these grounds.

• This shows how Parliament and the government can threaten rights in the UK by explicitly preventing the Supreme Court from using judicial review to challenge their legislation.

• The Human Rights Act can therefore be seen as not having a major positive impact due to parliamentary sovereignty

Para 3 = Stronger Argument - Did Have a Positive and Significant Impact

• it can be argued that this had a significant impact on the UK constitution as legislation must be compliant with the act

• Parliament usually acts to address any issues raised by the courts and parliament also has a Joint Committee on Human Rights to scrutinise bills and ensure they are compatible,

  demonstrating the 'persuasive influence' of the HRA

• For example, The Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was declared incompatible with Articles 5 and 14 of the human rights act

• The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 was amended by parliament as a result

• The Human Rights Act can therefore be seen as significant as it limits Parliamentary Sovereignty and furthers the Rule of Law in the UK