Tracking UK Constitutional Reform

The Constitution Unit's early reports, published in 1996 and 1997, addressed the full range of constitutional reform proposals that were then on the UK political agenda.  Many of these reports - the full list of which can be found on our publications page - focused on specific issues.  But some took a wider view.  In particular:

• The Unit's very first report, Delivering Constitutional Reform, examined in detail the processes through which a substantial constitutional reform agenda might best be delivered - through Whitehall, through Westminster, and, where appropriate, through processes of consultation and inquiry.
• In the CIPFA/Times Lecture delivered in July 1997, Robert Hazell surveyed the approach taken to constitutional reform by the Blair government in its earliest months. He highlighted in particular the government's piecemeal approach and the lack of any central coordination of the reform agenda. He gave a further progress report sixteen months later in his inaugural lecture as Professor of Government and the Constitution.

Later work continued to track the ongoing process of constitutional reform in the UK:

• A study co-authored by Catherine Bromley, John Curtice, and Ben Seyd and published in 2004, examined the impact of constitutional reform upon public opinion and considered the question of whether the UK faced a crisis of democracy.
• Robert Hazell resumed his series of lectures reviewing constitutional developments in November 2005 with a lecture delivered in both Aberystwyth and Edinburgh.
• A report into Parliamentary Scrutiny of Constitutional Bills 1997-2005, published in 2006, argued that better scrutiny of bills raising constitutional issues was needed.
• Towards a New Constitutional Settlement: An Agenda for Gordon Brown's First 100 Days and Beyond, published in June 2007 to coincide with Gordon Brown's move to the premiership, set out the constitutional 'action points' for the new government.
• In 2010, Robert Hazell surveyed The Conservative Agenda for Constitutional Reform before that year's general election and then The Conservative-Liberal Democrat Agenda for Constitutional and Political Reform after the election and the formation of the coalition government.