Tag Archives: public bodies bill

Coalition drops plans to allow Ministers to scrap quangos without consulting Parliament

By The Voice | Wed 2nd March 2011 - 5:53 pm

The Government has abandoned plans to give ministers sweeping powers to scrap quangos without consulting MPs.

The Public Bodies Bill has been proposed by the Coalition to allow ministers to abolish almost 200 public bodies including the Audit Commission and the Film Council.

It would also give ministers extensive new legal powers to order changes to another 150 public bodies using secondary legislation, meaning they could be abolished without further parliamentary approval.

Such powers are often called “Henry VIII” powers in reference to the Tudor monarch’s autocratic rule.

After a report by the Lords Constitution Committee, which said they would …

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged david howarth and lord taylor of holbeach | 3 Comments

Lords signals its intent to change controversial section of Public Bodies Bill

By Mark Pack | Wed 24th November 2010 - 8:55 am

Last week I wrote about the Public Bodies Bill and the power grab it makes to let the government change the law in future without proper Parliamentary control, similar though on a smaller scale to what Labour proposed previously with the so-called Abolition of Parliament Bill. David Howarth echoed these concerns at the weekend:

The Public Bodies Bill might not presage the end of parliamentary democracy in the way the 2006 Bill did, but it is a sloppy, lazily drafted bill that assumes, just as the 2006 Bill did, that those in power are all good chaps who would

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Posted in News | Also tagged david howarth, house of lords delegated powers and regulatory reform committee and lord norton | 4 Comments

David Howarth writes… The Public Bodies Bill is sloppy, lazily drafted and must be radically amended

By David Howarth | Sat 20th November 2010 - 4:02 pm

On Friday, Mark Pack wrote on Lib Dem Voice about Public Bodies Bill – Abolition of Parliament: it was wrong then and it’s wrong now – highlighting how some parts of the Public Bodies Bill echo the proposals previously made by Labour and against which David Howarth led the opposition. Now David Howarth gives his take on the Bill:

The Public Bodies Bill gives ministers powers to abolish, merge, reform or change the functions or financial arrangements of public bodies (i.e. quangos). Ministers will be able to use these powers by issuing unamendable statutory instruments that require a single vote …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged Mark Pack | 19 Comments

Abolition of Parliament: it was wrong then and it’s wrong now

By Mark Pack | Fri 19th November 2010 - 8:56 am

Back when Tony Blair was Prime Minister Labour tried to get through Parliament sweeping powers to change the law without requiring full Parliamentary scrutiny. Then Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth was one of those who led the charge against this, writing in The Times:

The Government proposed an extraordinary Bill that will drastically reduce parliamentary discussion of future laws, a Bill some constitutional experts are already calling “the Abolition of Parliament Bill”.

A couple of journalists noticed, including Daniel Finkelstein of The Times, and a couple more pricked up their ears last week when I highlighted some biting academic criticism of the

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