War Powers - NPN gives evidence to Constitution Committee
From Democracywiki
NPN gives evidence to Consitution Committee
 Our View In a Democracy decision-making should be scrutinised and must be accountable to the elected representatives and ultimately to the people. The decision to send troops into armed conflict is one of the most serious that any state can make. That this decision-making process is unaccountable and cannot be effectively scrutinised, is quite simply unacceptable. Parliament should approve the deployment of armed forces through a vote on a substantive issue in the House of Commons. In exceptional circumstances where this was not possible before the troops were deployed, the debate and vote would be retrospective. In addition to a vote there should also be parliamentary scrutiny of the military plans, not just the decision to deploy troops. There should be a special joint committee of both Houses to oversee the armed forces, with responsibility for scrutinising the work of the armed forces and in particular any plans for armed conflict Parliamentary scrutiny is not just about influencing the decision of the executive but is also about the constitutional principle of accountability both to Parliament and the people and ensuring that all issues are debated and examined. Clearly the deployment of armed forces is a sensitive issue and information should not be made public that would endanger the lives of service personnel. However this does not mean that only the executive can ever be involved in making these decisions. |
On Wednesday 8 February 2006 the New Politics Network and Democratic Audit gave evidence to the Constitution Committee's Inquiry into the use of the royal prerogative power by Government to deploy the UK's armed forces. Both organisations called for all prerogative powers to be put on a statutory footing and to be subject to parliamentary scrutiny but accepted that reform of the war making powers could be the first stage of this process.
Democratic Audit and the New Politics Network called for a Joint Committee of Lords and Commons to be created, charged with overseeing potential or actual military conflict. Government would be required to report to Parliament in detail and wherever possible obtain approval in advance of an action. The New Politics Network argued that this Joint Committee should be modelled on the German Armed Forces Committee which has the power to act as a committee of inquiry.
- The New Politics Network's briefing on war powers and the supplementary evidence submitted to the Committee can be found here
- The Democratic Audit's evidence can be found here
