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The House of Commons has launched a public consultation on how to modernise its procedures, standards, and working practices.
The newly established Modernisation Committee, set up by the Labour Government and chaired by Commons leader Lucy Powell MP, is calling for submissions from individuals and organisations on what topics it should prioritise when it comes to reform.
The committee has set out three aims: to drive up standards, improve the Commons culture and working practices, and reform Parliamentary procedures to “enhance effectiveness”.
Powell said: “In recent years the reputation of Parliament has been tarnished. The Modernisation Committee is up and running looking at how it can change Parliament to raise standards, improve working practices and culture and make House of Commons procedures more effective.”
The committee is particularly interested in examples from other parliaments and existing work that could inform their efforts.
Submissions can be made through the committee’s website until 3pm on 16 December.
The committee expects to publish most of the submissions it receives, but won’t consider individual complaints or problems. Instead, it will use the submissions to shape its ongoing programme of work.
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“There’s much to do, and the Committee is raring to go,” Powell said.
The committee is meant to be part of a broader effort to restore public trust in parliamentary institutions. MPs are formally banned from engaging in paid lobbying, and in July Commons leader Powell went further in banning MPs from providing paid advice on public policy and current affairs, or paid advice in general terms about how Parliament works.
There is likely to be a clampdown on MPs taking large payments or jobs with media outlets, following a flurry of Conservative and Reform UK MPs moonlighting with presenter roles on GB News.
The Modernisations Committee will only look at potential reforms to rules on MPs conduct and how the Commons works, rather than, for example, wider political reforms such as changing the voting system to put MPs there in the first place.
Critics will argue that more fundamental reforms may be needed to address the troubles facing the British political system, and the cronyism scandals seen in recent years.
Byline Times asked readers to submit their ideas for overhauling the Commons.
Andy Flaherty on BlueSky replied: “Move it out of London – a greenfield [site] outside Stoke on Trent. Provide flats for politicians….Up their pay to £150K and ban second jobs except for keeping up professional qualifications. Stop gifts above £30.”
Peter Smith on the same platform backed the call to “move Parliament to the provinces”.
“Darlington has excellent road, rail and air links. [Construct] a new building like a scaled up Scottish Parliament, with accommodation nearby of a Premier Inn standard,” he added.
Sarah Clarke wrote on Threads: “Build a compensated mechanism like jury service for specialist practitioners as advisors. Folk who get [the] operational nitty gritty, [but] without time and means to contribute to policy formulation and problem-solving.”
She added it would be a “counterweight for the strategy focus of lobbyists and think tanks.”
Jack Price-Harbach, the Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Mid Cheshire, called for electronic voting for MPs, noting: “The 8 minute rush to get to the lobby is ridiculous if you’re not in the chamber.
“MPs should be allowed to vote remotely but only when they are within the Palace of Westminster/Portcullis House etc.”
Another reader added a call to set up a new “public scrutiny committee” of citizens. It would “not be made up of individuals in the parliamentary system, or bound to party political lines.”
Christina Lynch suggested MPs “work normal business hours”, ending the scourge of late-night sittings that are often seen as putting off female candidates, disabled people and those with caring responsibilities.
Sarah Bakewell added on Threads her request for “a completely independent HR department” as well as formal contracts of employment for MPs (they do not currently have a job description or formal contracts).
She also backed giving MPs the ability to use words like “lie” and “liar” about other MPs in the chamber. Labour MP Dawn Butler was reprimanded for calling then-PM Boris Johnson a liar in the last Parliament, language deemed “un-parliamentary” by the House authorities.
One reader called for serious breaches in the Commons rules to be considered criminal offences, with “appropriate sanctions up to and including fines, prison time, and expulsion from Parliament.”
They demanded that anti-corruption laws, like the Bribery Act, be applied more clearly to MPs.
“Currently corruption is permitted, as long as you declare who is bribing you,” they argued. The word ‘corruption’ is often in the eye of the beholder (or rather, parliamentary standards officials), when it comes to MPs and peers.
Another reader called for MP’s to be required to provide their constituents with a regular log of their activities, “so it can be seen whether they’re working.”
Parliament is set to vote early in 2025 on what to do about the fact it is in an urgent state of disrepair, with the listed building under a constant state of high alert for the risk of fire and falling masonry. MPs could vote to ‘decant’ to another building during renovations, but some are reluctant, whether due to sentimentality or convenience.
Submit your ideas for reforms to the House of Commons directly to the committee here.
Suggestions from Byline Times readers so far…
Location and Infrastructure
- Move Parliament out of London (suggestions include Stoke-on-Trent and Darlington)
- Build a purpose-built venue with secure accommodation for MPs. It would be of practical quality, rather than luxury, and eliminate the need for second homes allowances
- Create a new building similar to the modern Scottish Parliament
Voting and Procedures
- Implement electronic voting for MPs (e.g. directly within the chamber)
- Allow remote voting from elsewhere in the parliamentary estate
- Overhaul the party whipping system
- Introduce regular business hours – no more super-late sittings
- Set specific time for constituency business including advice surgeries
- Allow MPs to record that they’ve officially ‘abstained’ in votes
Accountability and Ethics
- Introduce formal job descriptions and contracts of employment for MPs (and Ministers?)
- Establish an independent HR department for MPs’ staff
- Appoint an Ethics Adviser with more authority and “real teeth”
- Launch a new “public scrutiny committee” made up of citizens to hold politicians to accounts
- Create a compensated system for specialists and experts to act as advisers on laws
- A new mechanism for constituents to request their MP attends specific debates
- Require MPs to provide activity logs to constituents
- Update standards committee punishments to include criminal offences for serious breaches
- Enforce anti-corruption / anti-bribery laws in Parliament
Conduct in the Chamber
- Stop Prime Minister’s Questions from being a “pantomime”
- Turn off microphones of the MPs not currently speaking
- Forbid baying, catcalling, and shouting over people (and enforce it)
- Allow MPs to call out “lies” in the chamber
- Introduce a “Speaker of the Truth” role to provide context and correct falsehoods in real-time
Electoral and Structural Reform
- Implement Proportional Representation (PR)
- Move to an elected upper chamber
- Introduce citizens’ assemblies and more methods of participatory democracy
Note: These ideas would not be considered by the Committee, which is concerned only with conduct, standards and processes within the House of Commons, not elections to it.
Compensation and Benefits
- Introduce a cap on the value of “freebies” – restricting gifts to MPs from lobbyists and donors
- Remove the subsidies for food and drink in parliamentary restaurants and bars
- Ban second jobs except for maintaining professional qualifications, and increase MPs’ salaries to circa £150,000 to compensate for it
- Implement a six-week annual leave policy (rather than the current recess dates)
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