UK Government:
The Constitution
● Roles and powers of devolved bodies in the
UK, impact of this on devolution
● Debates on further reform
Parliament
● Comparative powers of the House of
Commons and the House of Lords
● The legislative process
● The ways in which Parliament interacts with
the executive
PM and executive
● Structure role and powers of the executive
● Concept of ministerial responsibility
Relations between branches
● The Supreme Court and its interactions with,
and influence over, the legislative and policy-
making process
UK GOVT
Contemporary examples
, Constitution
- Human rights repeal and judicial review can be mentioned here
Nationalities and Borders Act passed in 2022: Priti Patel allows for migrants and refugees
who arrive in the country through irregular routes to be placed in large accommodation
centres or offshore processing hub, 1000 civil society figures warned that passing the act will
violate the UK’s commitment under international law to provide safe passage and refuge
Another act passed by the conservative government is the Crime Sentencing and Policing
Act that replaces protesting from a common law offence to a statutory offence because it is
not an ‘absolute right’
HRA
Dominic Raab: The Justice Secretary is looking to repeal the HRA 1998- it was in Queens
Speech and so will come to the Commons this coming
The right to family life, under Article 8 of the ECHR will not be able to reach court as often,
with 70% of foreign criminals who lodge deportation appeals currently doing so under the
terms of the clause. Argue if they are deported it will undermine their family life.
- The Government is proposing to add a ‘permission stage’ at the start of human rights
legal cases
- This plan will mean that before a case can get off the ground, the person whose
rights have been violated will have to show they have faced a ‘significant’
disadvantage’ caused by the abuse of their rights
- Under government plans, the meaning of a right in the Bill of Rights won’t be the
same as its meaning in the ECHR and UK judges won’t even have to take European
judgements into account (which they currently have to)
- A ‘British Bill of Rights’ means that foreign citizens or migrants may not have the
same protections
- But the new proposals will probably keep declarations of incompatibility but remove
the right to ‘strike down’ secondary legislation
- This Bill of Rights would be harder to interpret as they will be more specifically
phrased
The government is looking to repeal the HRA; this will severely tilt the balance away from
citizens that have been allowed to seek redress through British courts without having to go to
strasbourg. The Belmarsh verdict (2005), Afghan hijackers case and more recently the
verdict against the Department of Work and Pension, regarding Universal Credit, illustrates
how citizens have been able to use the HRA in bringing the actions of government to
account, rights that previously would only be secured by a few if they could afford to take
their case to Strasbourg.
A ‘British Bill of Rights’ means that foreign citizens or migrants may not have the same
protections as british citizens: Belmarsh stated that HRA applies equally to foreign people
within the country
- This Bill of Rights would be harder to interpret as they will be more specifically
phrased.
The Constitution
● Roles and powers of devolved bodies in the
UK, impact of this on devolution
● Debates on further reform
Parliament
● Comparative powers of the House of
Commons and the House of Lords
● The legislative process
● The ways in which Parliament interacts with
the executive
PM and executive
● Structure role and powers of the executive
● Concept of ministerial responsibility
Relations between branches
● The Supreme Court and its interactions with,
and influence over, the legislative and policy-
making process
UK GOVT
Contemporary examples
, Constitution
- Human rights repeal and judicial review can be mentioned here
Nationalities and Borders Act passed in 2022: Priti Patel allows for migrants and refugees
who arrive in the country through irregular routes to be placed in large accommodation
centres or offshore processing hub, 1000 civil society figures warned that passing the act will
violate the UK’s commitment under international law to provide safe passage and refuge
Another act passed by the conservative government is the Crime Sentencing and Policing
Act that replaces protesting from a common law offence to a statutory offence because it is
not an ‘absolute right’
HRA
Dominic Raab: The Justice Secretary is looking to repeal the HRA 1998- it was in Queens
Speech and so will come to the Commons this coming
The right to family life, under Article 8 of the ECHR will not be able to reach court as often,
with 70% of foreign criminals who lodge deportation appeals currently doing so under the
terms of the clause. Argue if they are deported it will undermine their family life.
- The Government is proposing to add a ‘permission stage’ at the start of human rights
legal cases
- This plan will mean that before a case can get off the ground, the person whose
rights have been violated will have to show they have faced a ‘significant’
disadvantage’ caused by the abuse of their rights
- Under government plans, the meaning of a right in the Bill of Rights won’t be the
same as its meaning in the ECHR and UK judges won’t even have to take European
judgements into account (which they currently have to)
- A ‘British Bill of Rights’ means that foreign citizens or migrants may not have the
same protections
- But the new proposals will probably keep declarations of incompatibility but remove
the right to ‘strike down’ secondary legislation
- This Bill of Rights would be harder to interpret as they will be more specifically
phrased
The government is looking to repeal the HRA; this will severely tilt the balance away from
citizens that have been allowed to seek redress through British courts without having to go to
strasbourg. The Belmarsh verdict (2005), Afghan hijackers case and more recently the
verdict against the Department of Work and Pension, regarding Universal Credit, illustrates
how citizens have been able to use the HRA in bringing the actions of government to
account, rights that previously would only be secured by a few if they could afford to take
their case to Strasbourg.
A ‘British Bill of Rights’ means that foreign citizens or migrants may not have the same
protections as british citizens: Belmarsh stated that HRA applies equally to foreign people
within the country
- This Bill of Rights would be harder to interpret as they will be more specifically
phrased.
