Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill: Vol. 1: Report

The Committee’s inquiry covered six policy areas in the Government’s Draft Bill and White Paper, which was published on 25 March 2008 in the Command Paper The Governance of Britain - Constitutional Renewal (Cm. 7342-I/II/III) (ISBN 9780101734226).The six policy areas that the were the subject of the Committee’s inquiry are: Protests around Parliament; The Attorney General and Prosecutions; Courts and Tribunals; Treaties; Civil Service; and War Powers.It was generally felt that many of the ideas set out the Green Paper have not yet been brought forward into the Draft Bill and the Committee found it difficult to discern the principles underpinning it. They recommend that the Government think again about whether Constitutional Renewal is an appropriate title, and whether the long title is broad enough to cover all the issues and to enable Parliament to consider wider issues of constitutional reform during the passage of the Bill.