The government introduced a pretty big piece of constitutional legislation today: the Parliament Bill. But rather than the contentious constitutional change (four year terms) pushed by Labour, this merely consolidates the existing legislation covering Parliament - currently scattered across four different Acts - into one piece of legislation. While I haven't gone over it in detail to check for fuckery, it looks like quiet, boring legislation. There seem to be two significant changes:
- Giving parliamentary Security - those nice people who x-ray your bags on the way on to make sure you're not bringing in anything dangerous or planning to go on a stabbing spree on the tiles - formal statutory powers to do what they do. This is modelled on the existing framework for court security - who are in a similar role, but for courtrooms - and seems perfectly reasonable. Codifying their powers will help avoid mistakes and over-reach, which is a good thing in a democracy.
- Shifting funding for Parliamentary agencies to the model currently used for Officers of Parliament, preventing the executive from just cutting off funding to the legislature. Not that that was likely, but the possibility was not acceptable.
There's also some boring stuff about extending public service immunity for good faith actions in the course of their duties to the Parliamentary Service, and shifting functions under the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act from the Clerk to the Electoral Commission.
The worst thing you can say about this bill is that it is a huge missed opportunity for transparency. There have been repeated recommendations from multiple agencies to extend the Official Information Act to cover Parliament's administrative functions, ensuring we have a right to transparency from the legislature, rather than the current grace-and-favour arrangement. It would also help ensure the accountability of the Parliamentary Service for public money, and for its actions as an employer and a custodian of public property. Sadly, that seems to have been ignored. Which makes it an excellent amendment to raise when this bill gets to select committee...
