Taking Back Control: Why the House of Commons Should Govern its Own Time

The House of Commons is the senior chamber in the UK's sovereign parliament, to which the executive is accountable. Yet MPs have surprisingly little control over what the Commons can discuss, and when. This has caused significant controversies in recent years, from the 'seizing of the agenda' by MPs over Brexit, to their frustrations about being locked out of decision-making on COVID-19 and on decisions about virtual participation during the pandemic. This report addresses why MPs lack control of their own institution, what problems this causes and, crucially, what should be done. The report picks up where the 2009-10 'Wright Committee' left off, by suggesting that it is time for the House of Commons to 'Take Back Control' of its own proceedings.

Taking Back Control: Why the House of Commons should govern its own time is written by the Director of the Constitution Unit and UK in a Changing Europe Senior Fellow Professor Meg Russell and Dr Daniel Gover, Lecturer of British Politics at Queen Mary University of London and an honorary research fellow at the Constitution Unit. It is produced in collaboration with UK in a Changing Europe as part of the Unit's project on Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution.

The report was launched at an event on 19 January 2021 with the authors, Valerie Vaz MP, Karen Bradley MP and Sir David Natzler. A recording is available on YouTube.

Praise for the report

• 'Well worth reading. Important contribution to debate about balance of power between govt & @HouseofCommons' – Sir David Lidington, former Leader of the House of Commons
• 'There has to be some change, and whether it's another select committee to look at this whole report... I think that would be a good idea. And I think the majority of the recommendations in this report are good.' – Valerie Vaz MP, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
• 'The interesting and detailed report calls for a raft of changes to transfer control of Commons time from ministers and the Government, to MPs and the House as a whole...The risk in not considering and planning for such reforms are clear...if the Government continues to maintain an ironclad grip on Commons business, it risks change being forced in an uncomfortable and scattergun approach.' – Karen Bradley MP, chair of the Procedure Committee
• 'The report gives us some really interesting thoughts and it's really important that I, as the chair of the Procedure Committee, am able to see these kinds of things. I'm really grateful to Meg and Daniel and the whole team for putting this together because it gives us a basis to work from.' – Karen Bradley MP, chair of the Procedure Committee
• 'The Unit should be proud of what it's done... there are 20 careful ...constructive and evidence-based conclusions and recommendations on pages 58 onwards. [This is] a modest manifesto that now cries for detailed consideration by politicians.' – Sir David Natzler, former Clerk of the House of Commons
• 'The Constitution Unit has an impressive batting average in encouraging constitutional changes, and one of the report's co-authors, Professor Russell, has advised on every major reform of parliament - actual or proposed - since the New Labour years. And such has been the level of backbench concern about the Covid restrictions, it's just possible that a majority of MPs might be mobilised, in favour of these changes.' – Mark D'Arcy, Parliamentary Correspondent, BBC News

Key links

• Read the report
• Read the summary blog post here
• Read Meg Russell's article in Times Red Box (£)
• Read an article by the BBC's Mark D'Arcy, about the report and the issues it raises, here.
• Read an article by Karen Bradley - Chair of the Procedure Committee, and one of the speakers at our launch event - on ConservativeHome here.
• Meg Russell and Daniel Gover were interviewed by Mark D'Arcy on the 22 January episode of Radio 4's Today in Parliament
• Listen to an in-depth interview with Meg Russell about the issues raised in the report on Mark Pack's podcast here.
• Check out a tweet thread of video highlights from the launch event here.
• Listen to the podcast recording of the launch event here.
• Find out more about the UKICE funded Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution project here.