Hansard Society eNewsletter - August 2009

Has devolution delivered for women?
Thursday August 20, 14:30 - 16:00, Committee Room 1 in the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh.
The Hansard Society and the British Council would like to invite you to this exciting joint event at the Festival of Politics. 

Chair: Joyce McMillan (The Scotsman & Chair, Hansard Society Scotland Working Group)
Panel: Professor Alice Brown (Former Scottish Public Services Ombudsman); Rosemary Butler AM (Deputy Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales); Johann Lamont MSP (Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party); Professor Laura McAllister (Professor of Governance, University of Liverpool & Independent Adviser to the Parliamentary Services Board of the National Assembly for Wales)

The event is free to attend, but there is a small booking fee of £1. Tickets can be reserved from The Hub. More information on the Festival of Politics can be found here.

Restoring Trust in the House of Lords
New Hansard Society Briefing Paper
Recent events in the House of Lords have raised serious questions about standards of conduct within the second chamber, including questions around allowances, peers' external interests and enforcement of sanctions for misconduct. The Hansard Society co-hosted a seminar, with the Lord Speaker, in May 2009 drawing together a group of peers, academics, journalists, and people with a background in complex ethical and regulatory matters, to explore these issues.

This new briefing paper draws on discussions from the seminar, supplemented by our own research. It examines these issues and sets out a range of measures for reinstating public trust in the House of Lords. Key recommendations include:

• Empowering the office of the Lord Speaker to be able to better represent and act on behalf of the House and take forward a mandate for reform.
• Significant revision of the Code of Conduct, including setting out a clear ethos and mission for the House of Lords and extending the Code to cover the use of allowances and expenses.
• Establishing a hierarchy of possible sanctions that may be applied for breaches of a new Code of Conduct up to and including permanent expulsion from the House.

Click here to download the briefing paper


Televised Leaders' Debates
The Hansard Society welcomes further talks on televised leaders' debates
The Hansard Society believes that televised leaders' debates encourage public engagement with politics.

Fiona Booth, Chief Executive of the Hansard Society, commented: ‘As a result of Lord Mandelson's comments yesterday we are encouraged to hear that serious consideration is being given by the Parties, to participate in a televised leaders' debate.  The Hansard Society has long supported such debates and was responsible for organising the first ever televised Speaker Hustings held in June.'

We have re-published our research on this area in electronic format for free download.

HeadsUp Schedule 2009-10
The HeadsUp Forum Schedule for 2009-10 is now available
HeadsUp the Hansard Society's innovative online forum, where under-18s can discuss political issues with MPs, has had its most successful year since it started in 2003. Registrations have doubled since September and we've had two of the busiest forums ever - Youth Citizenship Commission...are young people allergic to politics? and Crime in Britain: How big is the problem?. We would like to say a huge thank you to all those that took part; your input makes the project what it is. The forum's topics and dates for next year will be:

• Climate Change special debate with the Department for Energy and Climate Change to inform the UN conference in Copenhagen: 28 September – 16 October
• The Economy: 23 November – 11 December
• Sex Education: 1 March – 19 March
• The General Election (subject to change): – 26 April – 14 May
• Politics and Politicians: 21 June – 9 July