Author Archives: Greg Simpson

In response to an article on Lib Dem Voice inviting members to join the Party’s Policy Panel – from which members of formal party working groups are chosen – I agreed to write an article here on how these working groups work and what role members play.

Policy working groups are appointed by the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) to develop policy proposals against a remit agreed by the FPC.

The FPC considers carefully what policy development it believes is needed over a parliament and sets its schedule accordingly. As a rule of thumb, each major portfolio area (such as Education, Health or Environment) tends to be overhauled at least once in a Parliament.

The FPC will set the remit of a working group and selects the chair and the membership from a proposed list drawn from the Policy Panel. Working groups will usually be a dozen strong and include the relevant spokespeople in the Commons and Lords, state party representatives where applicable, and the relevant MEP where there is an important European dimension. The rest of the membership is made up of party members from the Policy Panel who have expressed an interest in the issues the working group is focussing on, or have a background that would be helpful.