House Of Lords Select Committee On The Inquiries Act 2005 The Inquiries Act 2005 Post Legislative Scrutiny Hl 143

The report The Inquiries Act 2005: Post-legislative Scrutiny (HL143) finds that the government is not using the legislation passed in the Inquiries Act 2005 enough, and is setting up inquiries with inadequate powers. The Committee urges the government to set up a Central Inquiries Unit to make the most of any lessons learned from past inquiries, and make the best use of collective knowledge and proficiency in this field. The unit would be a new center of expertise, which would enable future inquiries to hit the ground running while also being more efficient, more streamlined and less costly to the public. Overall the Inquiries Act 2005 is robust and effective, but the government is not using it in the way it should be. By setting up public inquiries outside of the Act, the government is creating inquiries which have inadequate powers to do their job. On 6 March 2014, the Home Secretary announced a judge-led inquiry into undercover policing, but did not say

This collection of essays by leading academics, lawyers, parliamentarians and parliamentary officials provides a critical assessment of the UK Parliament's two main constitutional roles-as a legislature and as the preeminent institution for calling government to account. Both functions are undergoing change and facing new challenges. Part 1 (Legislation) includes chapters on Parliament's emerging responsibilities for pre-legislative scrutiny of government Bills and for evaluating proposed legislation against explicit constitutional standards. The impact on legislation of the European Union and the growing influence of the House of Lords are also examined. Part 2 (Accountability) investigates how Parliament operates to scrutinise areas of executive action previously often shielded from effective parliamentary oversight, including national security, war-making powers and administrative justice. There are also chapters on parliamentary reform, including analysis of the House of Commons 'Wright reforms', parliamentary sovereignty, privilege and the European Convention on Human Rights, Euroscepticism, and parliamentary sovereignty and the regulation of lobbyists. The book will be of interest to anyone who is curious about the work of Parliament and is aimed at legal academics, practitioners and political scientists.

This practical guide provides legal practitioners, participants, witnesses and all those with an interest in public inquiries, with stage-by-stage 'hands on' guidance on the process of public inquiries into matters of public concern. With its user-friendly format of summaries, checklists, 'top tips' and flow charts, this book looks at the setting up of a public inquiry through to its close. It includes information on: - the appointment of the chair and inquiry team; - the choice and significance of the venue; - the drawing up of inquiry procedures, protocols and rulings; - the appointment and role of core participants; - evidence taking; - conducting and attending hearings; - the role of experts; - the writing and publication of the inquiry report. Drawing on the authors' extensive experience as public inquiry lawyers, working on inquiries such as the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry, Leveson Inquiry and Grenfell Tower Inquiry, together with contributions from a number of other eminent practitioners in the field, this book provides valuable, comprehensive guidance on the public inquiry process.

This book considers the function of the royal prerogative in the changing landscape of the British constitution. It explains each of the prerogative powers in separate chapters. It clarifies the respective roles of government, Parliament and the courts in defining the extent of prerogative powers, and in regulating their use. It also looks at which powers should be codified in statute, which should be regulated by convention, and which could be left at large. The book is very timely in contributing to current debates. The fevered parliamentary debates over Brexit thrust the prerogative centre-stage. Recent controversies have ranged from the role of Parliament in assenting to treaties, to the prorogation and dissolution of Parliament, to the grant or withholding of royal assent to bills. In their 2019 election manifesto, the Conservative Party stated that 'After Brexit we also need to look at the broader aspects of our constitution, the relationship between the Government, Parliament and the courts; the functioning of the Royal Prerogative...'. The book covers the whole range of prerogative powers, from going to war and ratifying treaties, appointing and dismissing ministers, regulating the civil service and public appointments, to the grant of honours and pardons and the issue of passports. Its 19 chapters provide a comprehensive guide to the operation of the prerogative – past, present, and future – together with suggestions for reform.

Throughout the twentieth century, administrations have wrestled with allaying public concern over national disasters and social scandals. This book seeks to describe historically the use of public inquiries, and demonstrates why their methods continued to deploy until 1998 the ingrained habits of lawyers, particularly by issuing warning letters in order to safeguard witnesses who might be to blame. Under the influence of Lord Justice Salmon, the vital concern about systems and services allotted to social problems was relegated to the identification of individual blameworthiness. The book explains why the last inquiry under that system, into the events of 'Bloody Sunday' under Lord Saville's chairmanship, cost £200 million and took twelve and a half years (instead of two years). 'Never again', was the Government's muted cry as the method of investigating the public concern was eventually replaced by the Inquiries Act 2005, by common consent a good piece of legislation. The overriding principle of fairness to witnesses was confirmed by Parliament to those who are 'core participants' to the event, but with limited rights to participate. The public inquiry, the author asserts, is now publicly administered as a Commission of Inquiry, and is correctly regarded as a branch of public administration that focuses on the systemic question of what went wrong, as opposed to which individuals were to blame.

This best-selling textbook covers the essential topics of undergraduate public law modules in an insightful and interesting way. The authors capture the vibrant nature of public law in practice and the key contemporary debates in the field.