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Tag Archives: Catherine Haddon

The Constitution Unit turns 25!

Posted on June 15, 2020 by The Constitution Unit

0_25 years image - Copy

This year, 2020, marks a full 25 years since the foundation of the Constitution Unit. It has been a hugely eventful period, both in terms of real-world constitutional change and controversies, and in terms of the Unit’s own work. To mark our silver anniversary, we are celebrating some of the key ways in which the Unit has contributed to public debates, and helped to inform policy change, over this period. What better way to celebrate 25 years than with 25 of our most notable achievements?

Note that this post reproduces the text from a new page on our website celebrating our 25 years. That contains a full set of 25 images, so some readers may prefer to access the website version.

1. Hitting the ground running

Robert Hazell founded the Constitution Unit in 1995, with funding from six charitable trusts, to help with detailed planning for big constitutional reforms following a possible change of government. The initial research team included Graham Leicester (from the Foreign Office), Nicole Smith (Home Office) and Katy Donnelly. The Unit published seven book-length reports the following year: the first on how to prepare and deliver a big constitutional reform programme, and others on devolution to Scotland, Wales and the English regions, reform of the House of Lords, human rights legislation, and the conduct of referendums (the latter recommending the establishment of an Electoral Commission). From 1997, the new Labour government began to implement its constitutional reform programme, which often reflected Unit recommendations. Responding to the intense reform activity in government, the Unit published 17 further reports in 1998 and 20 more in 1999.

2. Monitor goes to print

In September 1997 the Unit published the first issue of Monitor, its regular bulletin of constitutional news. Monitor continues today to provide an essential digest of political and constitutional changes three times a year, valued by over 4800 subscribers – if you are not among them, you can sign up here. 

3. Reform of the House of Lords

From its earliest years, the Unit has fed in regularly to debates about reform of the House of Lords. It published ten briefings for the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords in 1999, several of them authored by the Unit’s future Director Meg Russell and drawing on analysis of overseas experience. In 2000, she published the book Reforming the House of Lords: Lessons from Overseas. This body of comparative research has influenced debates on second chamber reform in various other countries as well as the UK – including Canada, Italy and Japan. Meanwhile Meg’s 2013 book The Contemporary House of Lords is today’s definitive work on the chamber, underpinned by research funded by the ESRC.

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Posted in Brexit, Constitutions and constitution making, Devolution, Elections and referendums, Europe, Events, Freedom of information, Government, International, Judiciary and human rights, Monarchy, church and state, Parliament, Parties and politicians, Public Engagement and Policy Making | Tagged 20th Anniversary, 25 years, Akash Paun, All women shortlists, Backbench Business Committee, Baroness d'Souza, Ben Seyd, Ben Yong, Bernard Jenkin, boris johnson, Brexit, Cabinet manual, Catherine Haddon, Citizens' Assembly on Brexit, Constitutional Futures, Constitutional Futures Revisited, Council of Europe, Daniel Gover, Democracy Matters, Doing Democracy Better, Dominic Grieve, Electoral Commission, English devolution, expenses scandal, Gordon Brown, Graham Gee, Graham Leicester, Hilary Benn, House Full, House of Lords, house of lords reform, human rights, hung parliament, Independent Commission on Referendums, Jenny Watson, Jo Murkens, Judicial independence, Kate Malleson, Katy Donnelly, Labour party, Leanne Wood, Legislation at Westminster, Lord Bingham, Lord Irvine of Lairg, Lord Speaker's Committee on the Size of the House of Lords, Making Minority Government Work, Mark Chalmers, Michael Keating, Michela Palese, minority government, misinformation, Monitor, MPs expenses, Nicky Morgan, Nicola Sturgeon, Nicole Smith, Northern Ireland, Options for an English Parliament, PACAC, Patrick O'Brien, Peter Jones, Politics of Judicial Independence, referendums, Reforming the House of Lords: Lessons from Overseas, Replacing the Lords: The Numbers, robert hazell, Robin Cook, Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords, Ruth Davidson, Scotland, Scottish Independence, Stephen Sedley, The Contemporary House of Lords, The Mechanics of a Further Referendum on Brexit, Tony Wright, Vernon Bogdanor, Wales, women MPs, Women's representation in UK politics, Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland, Wright Committee, Wright report

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