This is a report of the Federal Policy Committee meeting of 23rd November. This was a fairly sparsely attended meeting. The elections are in full swing and, for that reason, it is not particularly surprising that this was the case.

Brexit Update

Sarah Ludford took the committee through the latest position on Brexit. The Supreme Court case is listed for the early part of December. One of the key issues is whether Article 50 can be revoked. The parties agreed on that question in the High Court and it may be that the Supreme Court has to re-visit that question. There may be a reference to the European Court of Justice, if not from the United Kingdom then from elsewhere. That would delay matters. The stance that we have adopted is that there must be a Parliamentary vote on involving Article 50 regardless of the court proceedings. It would be odd, in an argument about sovereignty, if that were not the case. We have also said that there should be a referendum on the terms of the deal that ends up being on the table. We have said that we will vote against the triggering of Article 50 in the Commons unless there is a commitment from the government to have that referendum.

The committee had a general discussion about this question but there were no formal decisions to be taken.

Sex Work Preliminary Report

The committee went on to consider the preliminary report from the Sex Work Group, chaired by Belinda Brooks-Gordon. That report set out a number of issues that the group was to consider including violence against sex workers, coercion, police investigations or the lack thereof, the legislative framework, criminalisation, stigma and issues that sex work can cause in the local community.

The paper went on to deal with what the aims of a Liberal Democrat policy should be and what changes to the law were required. They were set out in some detail and they will be in the motion and paper that will mark the end of the process.

This is an area of great sensitivity and there were members of the committee who took slightly different views on some of the issues raised. Others raised the question of the effect that sex work can have on local communities. There was a debate over the differences in principle between criminalisation and legalisation. Nothing is finalised yet: a formal paper will be presented to the final meeting of the committee in December. The whole issue will then be debated at Federal Conference in the Spring.

Conference De-Brief

The committee went through the amendments and motions that were passed at conference. There was nothing that the committee was defeated on and there was just the one contentious amendment passed to our policy papers – the one on benefit sanctions.

The committee considered the Agenda 2020 agenda item that was held at conference in some detail. There was concern that the item had not worked as well as we had hoped, for a variety of reasons, and some ideas were discussed as to how we might make similar items better in the future. Options included splitting those items up, changing the timings within the Parliament and altering the format.

Faith Schools

The Federal Policy has an Education Policy Working Group in progress at present. It is not, however, tasked with considering the issue of faith schools. That issue was excised from the remit deliberately because it was feared that it would dominate the group and the conference debate that followed.

We do have to grapple with that issue though and that is something that we will do in a separate motion in the Spring. Jeremy Hargreaves was asked to put together that motion. There is a wide degree of consensus but the question of admissions is highly contentious. Jeremy, and some others, are to prepare a draft for the first meeting of the new committee, in January 2017. There will be a consultation with interested groups within the Party beforehand.

The committee noted and endorsed that approach.

Issues Arising from the September 2016 Draft Manifesto

When it was thought that there might be a General Election in the Autumn, the Federal Policy Committee went through the process of preparing a draft manifesto that could be used in the event that a snap election was called. It was based on our 2015 manifesto but was significantly updated in a number of areas.

As we were going through that document, there were a number of issues highlighted that were agreed should be the basis for further policy development. The committee went through those and considered how best to take them forward. Some of them were allocated to particular working groups presently in train. Examples include flooding (Rural Communities Working Group) and the role of Governors in Schools (Education Working Group). Committee members raised a number of other issues, including prisons and transport, that need to be considered.

A number of people on the committee said that the document should be published because it was a useful statement of our beliefs and our latest policies. I raised the issue that has been raised with me in the English Party about making it available for our candidate assessments.

The committee also considered, in very general terms, which policy working groups it would want to establish in the second half of the Parliament. It agreed to set up a working group on Immigration and Identity and one on devolving power to local communities, which will inevitably involve aspects of Local Government.

As always, questions and comments are very welcome!