Governance of Britain

Through history the relationship between the individual and the state, the rights and responsibilities of the individual and the state and the role of our public institutions have been the subject of review, debate, and reform. Our programme of constitutional renewal is designed to revitalise the relationship between citizens, government, and parliament.

The Governance of Britain sets out to tackle these challenges and begin the next phase of the government's constitutional reforms:

to invigorate our democracy, with citizens given the means to participate in decision-making at every level
to clarify the role of government, both central and local
to rebalance power between Parliament and government, and give Parliament greater ability to hold government to account
to give British people a stronger sense of what it means to be British, and to include them in a debate on the future of the country's constitution

White Paper and Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill

The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State announced the next steps for the constitutional renewal programme on 25 March 2008.

The White Paper, The Governance of Britain: Constitutional Renewal, takes the route map first laid out in the Governance of Britain Green Paper, develops it further by taking into account the views expressed in consultations, and sets out the government's position.

The Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, as part of the White Paper, contains a series of proposed reforms that will renew Britain's constitutional arrangements. The reforms will limit the government's power on certain matters and hand more power to Parliament.

We have also published an Analysis of Consultations document, which analyses the responses to consultations that preceded the White Paper and Draft Bill on:

war powers and treaties
the role of the Attorney General
judicial appointments
the Civil Service
flag flying
managing protest around Parliament

At the heart of these reforms is the government's belief that in a modern democracy, such as ours, there are certain powers that should not be the sole preserve of the government. Parliament, as the elected representatives of the people, should have a greater role to play.