Our parliament is effectively under the control of government whips. Too many decisions are taken out of parliament’s hands entirely, to be taken by government ministers and quangos. This has lead to too  little scrutiny, bad laws and the emergence of a political class more interested in patronage than accountability.

House of Commons Reform

Fundamental reform of the House of Commons is needed to create a chamber which can scrutinise legislation and hold the government to
account. The House of Commons should:

• Establish a business committee so that time for debate is not in the gift of the government.
• Increase time available for committee work.
• Select committee reports should be debated in the House of Commons.
• Allow more questions on urgent concerns.
• Allow members of select committees to be elected by secret ballot of MPs.
• Introduce training for MPs.

An Elected House of Lords

For parliament to have legitimacy, it must be elected. The House of Lords should be a fully elected second chamber, with:

• The same powers as the current House of Lords.
• Members elected using an open and proportional system in thirds for non-renewable 12 year terms.
• Between 250 and 350 members.
• Experts invited in to consider specific bills.
• No government ministers.

Limit Government Power

The UK government has enormous powers which are not open to scrutiny — these powers should be accountable to parliament and
thus, ultimately, the public. To achieve this:

• Parliament must vote before troops are deployed abroad.
• Parliament should be able to advise on what should and shouldn’t be included in a treaty before it is negotiated rather
  than just voting on the end product.
• A select committee should determine how statutory instruments are approved so that the government cannot avoid scrutiny.

Reform the Unelected State

Increasingly public policy functions are being carried out by unelected public bodies (quangos). Many of these should be scrapped entirely
but some perform important regulatory functions that cannot be legitimately performed by government. To make quangos accountable:

• Their functions should be transferred to national or local government where possible.
• Where this is not appropriate they should either hold elections amongst stakeholders or be made directly accountable to parliamentary committee as with the Electoral Commission.

Record of Action

Charter 88 played a leading role in the establishment of the Freedom of Information Act.  We continue to push for an even greater right to know and defend the existing Act against its attackers.

In 2004, Charter 88 and the New Politics Network formed the Elect the Lords campaign, which made the case for a predominantly or wholly elected second chamber and helped deliver the historic House of Commons vote for reform in March 2007.

In 2005, Charter 88 and the New Politics Network worked together with a cross-party group of MPs on a Private Members Bill to ensure that decisions to deploy troops are made by Parliament (except in emergency situations, whereby the decision should still be subject to scrutiny by Parliament).

See also

• Elect the Lords
• Alliance for Lobbying Transparency