Alongside CapX’s new weekly podcast The Capitalist, we’ll also be publishing a series of episodes, titled Despatch, which offer an audio version of some of our favourite pieces from the site.
This week, it’s Harry Gillow on the declining standard of debate and legislative scrutiny in Westminster.
Contrary to the general perception, Parliamentary debate really does matter. Despite the fact that local casework has become an ever-increasing part of an MP’s job – and this work is indeed a vital part of tethering MPs to the reality of those they represent – there’s no escaping the importance of high-quality legislative scrutiny. The sheer scale of the task has increased too: Acts of Parliament averaged only 21 pages in the 1950s-1980s, but that rose to 86 pages by 2010-2016. Moreover, legislation passed between 2007 and 2015 typically grew around 40% as a result of parliamentary amendments.
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It may seem dull and technocratic, but when it goes wrong, we all suffer. In 2022, a Schools Bill was introduced with what appears to have been placeholder provisions still in the text; the effect would have been to reverse substantial parts of the Conservatives’ education reforms since 2010. It was only when subjected to furious criticism in the Lords that this was picked up and reversed. The Public Procurement Act 2023 made it all the way through the legislative process with provisions in place that could unpick the courts’ judgments restricting the interference of busybody organisations like the Good Law Project in the public procurement process; so far as I can tell, these provisions weren’t subject to any real debate at all. The EU (Future Relationship) Act 2020 was rushed through at such breakneck speed that no one apparently noticed that Section 29 incorporates the entirety of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement into directly effective UK law, until it was gently pointed out to them by the courts (who have subsequently done their level best to clean up Parliament’s mess).
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