Research Briefing
On 12 March 2012, the House agreed changes to the rules for the election of the chair and members of the Backbench Business Committee. The previous rules, changes made and background to the changes are reviewed in this note.
Research Briefing
The Public Bodies Act 2011 received royal assent on 14 December 2011. The Act provides for orders to be brought forward to abolish, merge, modify the constitutional arrangements of; modify the funding arrangements of; and modify or transfer the functions of public bodies.
Research Briefing
This note sets out issues relating to lobbying in the UK, including the announcement of the Government’s consultation paper on a statutory register. It includes background to the Public Administration Select Committee's inquiry and the main findings of their report as well as the Government response. It also includes details of the 1991 Select Committee on Members' Interests report and the relevant work of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
Research Briefing
This note explores the concept of the 'West Lothian Question' in the light of the devolution settlements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1999.
Research Briefing
This standard note provides a summary of the main recommendations of the Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary representation which published its final report in January 2010.
Research Briefing
This note provides links to background information relevant to the Committee on Members' Expenses review of the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009.
Research Briefing
The purpose of this Standard Note is to list, by series, and in chronological order within each series, all pre-1995 House of Commons Library Research briefings. Many of them are not available electronically. About 2,000 documents fall into this category.
Research Briefing
This paper is essentially a short selective bibliography of resources on the Intelligence and Security Committee.
Research Briefing
This Note looks at the history of impeachment. This note has been replaced by a new briefing paper.
Research Briefing
The creation of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice is based on the Tampere (1999-04), Hague (2004-09) and Stockholm (2010-14) programmes. It derives from the pre-Lisbon Title IV TEC (Visas, asylum, immigration and other policies related to free movement of persons) and Title VI TEU (Provisions on police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters) and is now Title V of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the “Area of freedom, security and justice” (AFSJ). The AFSJ therefore comprises policies relating to border controls, asylum and immigration; judicial cooperation in civil matters; judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation.
Research Briefing
This note outlines the background to various proposals that have been made for changes to the way in which the members of select committees are nominated. It includes details of the proposals made by the Select Committee on Reform of the House of Commons, which was established in July 2009 to advise on reforms to, inter alia, make select committee processes more democratic; and details of the recommendations adopted by the House. It also includes details of the initial operation of the new system of elected select committee chairs, and nominations, from June 2010 onwards.
Research Briefing
This Standard Note considers the extent to which 1) the executive and legislature; 2) the executive and judiciary; and 3) the judiciary and legislature now overlap and interact.
Research Briefing
This standard note summarises the Lords stages of the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill
Research Briefing
The Sovereign Grant Bill concerns the way in which the monarchy is funded. It seeks to replace the Civil List and other grants that support the Queen’s official duties with a new Sovereign Grant, based on a percentage of the profits of the Crown Estate. The new grant is designed to deliver at first a broadly similar level of finance in cash terms to what is available at present. There are mechanisms for adjusting the level in future, and for using any significant surplus as a means to reduce the grant. The Sovereign Grant is intended to be a typical government grant that will lead to the royal finances being audited by the National Audit Office, and subjected to full parliamentary scrutiny.
Research Briefing
This note outlines some of the current initiatives in this area.
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