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Select committee: Constitution Committee

10th Report - Respect and Co-operation: Building a Stronger Union for the 21st century

Published 20 January 2022

Constitution Committee Future Governance of the UK Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance6 recommendations · Government response published 2 September 2022 (deadline 20 March 2022)

The government's response

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government welcomes the Committee's report and shares its aim of a stronger Union, agreeing with some recommendations, declining others and giving a mix of commitments and 'will consider' responses on the rest.

  • On the Sewel convention, the government says it "will carefully consider the Committee's recommendations" in its discussions with devolved counterparts. On the Cabinet Manual, it intends to publish a revised draft "within this Parliament".
  • On intergovernmental relations, it "notes" that the IGR review assures a Prime Minister and Heads of Devolved Governments Council meeting "at least annually", and that this does not preclude more frequent meetings.
  • It does not intend to establish an English devolution task force, pointing instead to ongoing engagement on the Levelling Up White Paper. On the Ministerial Code, it says it "will consider" the recommendation for the next version but does not think revision "is necessary".
  • On funding pots for local government, it agrees that effective central coordination matters and will "set out a plan for streamlining the funding landscape this year".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

Sources

Recommendations and conclusions 6

  1. 138
    We recommend that to increase confidence in the Sewel convention, as well as strengthening interparliamentary... Recommendation Recommendation (the committee's words)
    We recommend that to increase confidence in the Sewel convention, as well as strengthening interparliamentary scrutiny of intergovernmental relations more generally, the House of 186 Institute for Government, Legislating by consent: How to revive the Sewel convention 187 QQ 176–77 (Professor Richard Wyn Jones) and Q 221 (Professor Jim Gallagher) 188 Q 108 (Michael Gove MP) 189 See also Constitution Committee, Devolution: Inter-Institutional Relations in the United Kingdom (2nd Report, Session 2002–03, HL Paper 28), para 130. The Committee said it found “it strange that an issue which is fundamentally about co-operation between legislatures has turned in practice into co-operation between executives.” 44 RESPECT AND CO-OPERATION: BUILDING A STRONGER UNION Lords should strengthen its scrutiny of bills that engage the Sewel convention as follows: (a) On introduction of a bill to the House of Lords which engages the Sewel convention, the Government should submit a memorandum to the House about the devolution implications, explain what engagement has taken place with the relevant devolved administrations. (b) In our scrutiny of the bill, the Committee will take into account the Government’s memorandum, progress in securing legislative consent and any further evidence or materials, including the view of a committee of a relevant devolved legislature, we consider necessary. As the Committee has done previously,190 we may occasionally advise the House on the wisdom of proceeding with a bill in the absence of legislative consent.191 Depending on the timing of each devolved legislature’s consideration of a legislative consent memorandum and motion, including the possibility of amendments requiring the consideration of supplementary memorandums and motions, we might have to issue a report at a later stage. (c) The Procedure and Privileges Committee should consider if a devolved legislature’s consent, or lack of consent, should receive greater prominence in House of Lords Busin
  2. 141
    We recommend that the changes we propose to the operation of the Sewel convention should... Recommendation Recommendation (the committee's words)
    We recommend that the changes we propose to the operation of the Sewel convention should be reflected in an updated version of 190 The Committee scrutinises most public bills introduced to the House of Lords. This scrutiny includes consideration of any devolution issues. 191 The process assumes that most of the bills in question will have already completed their passage in the House of Commons. It is also assumed that this process will not be possible in all circumstances, including for bills which start in the House of Lords and in exceptional circumstances, such as emergency legislation. RESPECT AND CO-OPERATION: BUILDING A STRONGER UNION 45 the Cabinet Manual and the Guide to Making Legislation. In the meantime, as the Devolution Guidance Notes do not reflect the current devolution arrangements, they should be updated as a priority. Northern Ireland
  3. 206
    We recommend the Government enters into a formal agreement with the House of Lords on... Recommendation Recommendation (the committee's words)
    We recommend the Government enters into a formal agreement with the House of Lords on the information it will provide about its intergovernmental engagements, to enhance the current scrutiny arrangements. This agreement should formalise the information already provided by the Government and, in the same manner as the agreements between the Scottish and Welsh administrations and legislatures, should include the advance notification of formal intergovernmental meetings to the House, as well as greater detail about those meetings as we have recommended. The agreement should also include a commitment to provide the proposed memorandum we recommended to strengthen the House’s consideration of legislative consent issues.
  4. 225
    We recommend that the UK Government and devolved administrations should undertake to engage with the... Recommendation Recommendation (the committee's words)
    We recommend that the UK Government and devolved administrations should undertake to engage with the new interparliamentary forum. RESPECT AND CO-OPERATION: BUILDING A STRONGER UNION 67 ChAPTER 7: ThE GOVERNANCE OF ENGLAND
  5. 264
    We recommend that to facilitate further devolution to devolved authorities in England the Government should... Recommendation Recommendation (the committee's words)
    We recommend that to facilitate further devolution to devolved authorities in England the Government should provide them with adequate resources and support to build the necessary capacity to exercise additional powers, as well as the capability to deliver them. This will be critical to the successful extension of devolution within England to the counties. Alignment
  6. 288
    We recommend that a greater understanding of the Union should become part of every Government... Recommendation Recommendation (the committee's words)
    We recommend that a greater understanding of the Union should become part of every Government department’s DNA but acknowledge this will take time to achieve. In the meantime, there needs to be strong political and civil service leadership of what should be regarded as a major change programme across Whitehall. The Cabinet Union Strategy Committee