Tag Archives: restoration and renewal

A new parliament in an old palace: where next for the Restoration and Renewal programme? 

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Following the general election, an unusually large number of MPs entered parliament for the first time, but the building that they will be working in is in serious need of repair. Alex Meakin outlines how the previous parliament approached the problem of restoring and rebuilding a parliamentary estate that is in increasing need of serious work to make it a safe and effective venue for the UK’s legislators. She concludes that the sheer cost of the project will act as a deterrent to strong action, but that further delay will likely only increase that cost, and could result in the loss of the Palace of Westminster as a working building altogether.

Several months into the post-election parliament, the 335 MPs who were sworn in for the very first time are starting to find their way round their new workplace, navigating a building covering the same area as 16 football pitches, across 65 different levels. Along with their returning colleagues, the 2024 cohort will soon be asked to decide on the future of the Palace of Westminster: a decision which has the potential to shape the culture of the legislature for their successors. 

As the newly-elected MPs are discovering, behind the magnificent mock-Gothic exterior of the palace lies a building in disrepair. Windows that cannot be closed, mice running along the long corridors, and leaking pipes and toilets are all evidence of the major refurbishment the palace requires. Far greater evidence is hidden behind the walls and within the basement of the building, where the essential mechanical and electrical services — which provide the necessary power, ventilation, communications, and heating to the building — are now decades past their expected lifespan. Their condition leaves the building at risk of a catastrophic event, such as a fire or flood, which could risk lives as well as the future of the palace.  

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Restoring and renewing parliamentary buildings fit for parliamentary diplomacy

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Debates about the future of the Palace of Westminster have focused on whether MPs can keep sitting on the green benches in the Commons but, as Cherry Miller and Alexandra Meakin explain, a meeting of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly has highlighted the broader use of the building, and its role in defining an image of the UK to the rest of the world.

On 4–5 December, the UK parliament hosted the fourth meeting of the EU–UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, a body set up to oversee implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. A delegation of 35 MEPs (and staff) visited the UK parliament, meeting with 21 MPs and 14 peers to discuss ‘the state of play within the Partnership Council’; a recommendation on mobility of people; breakout groups on data protection, fisheries, and citizens’ rights; artificial intelligence and climate change. Innumerable side meetings were also held on the parliamentary estate and there was a reception in Speaker’s House. In the previous visit to Westminster, in November 2022, visiting delegates had the option of attending a tour of the parliamentary estate.

The UK Parliamentary Partnership meets in the UK parliament for prestige, minimising costs and maximising attendance (of the UK delegation). The meeting has twice been held in Committee Room 14, a historic setting of the 1922 committee. At the 4 December meeting, co-chair Oliver Heald MP apologised to attendees in his opening remarks:

‘I would like to give you a warm welcome, although this room is not as warm as we would like. We have asked that the windows be closed but they can’t do it tonight because it requires a ladder and all sorts of equipment, but they are bringing an extra heater and I do apologise. It’s a nice historic building, but there is that problem, that it’s a bit cold’.

(PPA, 04/12/23)

Many parliamentarians and staff sat in coats, scarfs (and gloves, for some). Parliamentary staff deftly worked to ameliorate this situation, locating and wheeling in portable heaters. Despite the cool temperature, the mood in the televised plenary was, in general, convivial. One MEP joked there was a need to ‘put another 50p in the meter’ and metaphors about the freezing and thawing of EU–UK relations abounded. However, this raises broader issues about parliamentary diplomacy and Restoration and Renewal, as discussed below.

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Parliaments and the pandemic

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Earlier this year, the Study of Parliament Group published a collection of 25 essays on how parliaments across the UK and further afield have responded to the pandemic. They consider not only aspects of the response in the two Houses at Westminster, but also in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Crown Dependencies, New Zealand and other international comparisons, including case studies of the Maldives and Bahrain. Paul Evans summarises some of the themes here.

Executive assertion and parliamentary compliance

As the full scale of the threat posed by COVID-19 began to be recognised, governments wanted to take powers and parliaments were for the most part initially willing to cede them, with little protest when the normal procedures were abrogated. In most cases the legislatures, initially at least, willingly handed over very extensive powers to their governments to make emergency legislation and this was generally done with unusual expedition and, as a result, scant scrutiny.

The problem was perhaps most acute in the area of delegated legislation, resulting in government more or less by decree, as Tom Hickman sets out in his contribution to the volume. At the best of times, the scrutiny of this at Westminster – particularly in the Commons – is open to, and regularly receives, criticism. When actions were first taken to control the pandemic, it was widely suspected that the UK government was deliberately reducing the level of potential parliamentary scrutiny. This suspicion applied to a lesser extent to other executives, which introduced a large number of instruments which took effect in advance of being approved by the legislature.

However, as all the examples, domestic and international, demonstrate, there is an eternal conflict in the procedures underpinning democratic systems between a diversity of voices and a unity of purpose, between efficiency and accountability, between deliberation and decisiveness, and between consent and control. The pandemic, like any national emergency tends to, dramatically highlighted these tensions. In one essay in the volume, Paul Seaward notes that the extent of the use of emergency powers seen in the UK parliament in 2020 is unprecedented in peacetime .

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Boris Johnson and parliament: an unhappy tale in 13 acts

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meg_russell_2000x2500.jpgParliament returns from its summer break today. During Boris Johnson’s 13 months in office as Prime Minister his relationship with parliament has often been rocky. In this post, Unit Director Meg Russell reviews 13 episodes during these 13 months which illustrate Johnson’s difficult relationship with parliament. His Number 10 has often resisted parliamentary oversight, and faced down significant parliamentary opposition – including from his own backbenchers. With growing indications of backbench discontent, she explores the dangers of this situation.

As the Commons reassembles today, it’s a good moment to reflect on the relationship between Boris Johnson’s government and parliament so far. Johnson has now held office for just over a year, and rumours are emerging of significant discontent on the Conservative backbenches. From the outset, Johnson’s relationship with parliament has been beset with controversy. As he enters his second parliamentary year, what have been the key flashpoints, and what do they add up to collectively?

This post looks back at 13 episodes in the past 13 months, before reflecting on what they teach us, and what the future may hold. It suggests that while existing flashpoints have resulted from Number 10’s bold assertions of executive power, there are risks for Johnson that the tables could soon start to be turned.

1. The first day: two hours of scrutiny before recess

Boris Johnson became Prime Minister on the afternoon of 24 July 2019, following his victory in the Conservative leadership contest. On that day, Theresa May took her final Prime Minister’s Questions. Johnson thus had just one day to face parliament, which was about to break for its summer recess. The hot topic was Brexit; May had been forced out after failing to gain adequate support from her own MPs for her Brexit deal, which was defeated three times in the Commons between January and March. Johnson had been among those voting against it. The big question was how he could succeed where Theresa May had failed. On 25 July there was a brief potential window for MPs to quiz him on his Brexit strategy. But he chose instead to make a far more general statement on ‘priorities for government’. After two hours of questions ranging across all policy topics, the Commons moved to adjourn until September. An attempt by MPs to delay adjournment had failed, as did a later attempt to recall parliament over the summer to discuss progress on Brexit. Recall is impossible without the agreement of the government. Continue reading →