Constitutional Reform Act 2005

The ‘’’Constitutional Reform Bill’’’ was introduced to the House of Lords on February 24, 2004, and proposed the following changes:

• Abolition of the office of “Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain”, generally known as the Lord Chancellor.
• Setting up of a “Supreme Court of the United Kingdom” and moving the Law Lords out of the House of Lords to this new court.
• Other measures relating to the judiciary, including changes to the position of the Lord Chief Justice and changes to the Privy Council's Judicial Committee.

The bill has caused much controversy and the Lords have made many amendments to it. The most recent version of the bill keeps the post of Lord Chancellor, though its role in relation to the judiciary is greatly reduced and the office holder would no longer be speaker of the House of Lords. Other measures of the bill remain generally the same as stated above though.

It is now thought that the newly created Cabinet position of Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (originally created to replace the Lord Chancellor’s executive function) will continue, although the holder of that Cabinet post will also hold the ancient office of Lord Chancellor too. There is a major remaining wrangle in Parliament over the bill, on the issue of whether the Lord Chancellor should have to be a member of the House of Lords. Some feel that the Lord Chancellor should be an MP, so that the House of Commons could scrutinise the office holder directly. Peers have, on December 7, 2004, amended the bill so that the holder of the office has to be a member of the House of Lords – although the amendment passed with only a small majority.

Once the Lords have accepted the bill, it will go to the House of Commons (the bill originated in the Lords, so this will be the first time the Commons deals with it). Whether the Commons will accept the Lords' amendments, or go back to the original bill, remains to be seen. It now looks likely that the Commons will try to alter the bill so that the Lord Chancellor can be an MP. The Parliament Acts will not be able to be used with this bill, however, as it has originated from the House of Lords.

The bill is expected to become law before Parliament is dissolved for the General Election of 2005, which is expected to be held in May.

External links

• Parliament The official website of the United Kingdom Parliament, with regularly updated Hansard reports (the minutes of Parliamentary debates) and the latest versions of bills.
• Department for Constitutional Affairs The official website of the Department of Constitutional Affairs, which includes a section on constitutional reform in the UK.
• The latest version of the bill Read the Constitutional Reform Bill in full here... in 'html' and 'pdf' formats.
• Brief overview of the (original) bill from the Guardian.