Unlocking the Power to Govern: Ending the veto state
Three papers return authority to those who can be held responsible for it. The first restores the constitutional settlement in the courts. The Supreme Court is abolished and the Appellate Committee is restored and reconstituted as the final court. The Constitutional Reform Act is repealed, the office of Lord Chancellor is restored and senior judges are confirmed in Parliament. Judicial review is returned to its purpose of holding decisions to the law. Standing is narrowed, litigation funding must be disclosed and the grounds of review are confined. Statutory interpretation is restored, ouster clauses are given effect, the boundary of justiciability is reinstated and interim relief is limited, with overreaching rulings reversed. The immigration and asylum tribunals are reconstituted. A statutory code of judicial conduct requires declaration and recusal, removal becomes a power of the House of Commons and a time-limited review examines judicial conduct. Sentencing guidelines are brought under parliamentary control.
The second classifies every public function and every arm's-length body by what it does, and requires every public power to have a legal source, a named holder and a line of accountability. Bodies that deliver services return to ministerial control. Each regulator is given an ordered mandate, with strategic direction set through Parliament and stronger accountability for the use of its powers. Advisory bodies are confined to advice and statutory consultees become advisers rather than vetoes, while the functions that must remain independent are protected. Every body is reviewed every ten years, a new power allows bodies to be restructured and their performance is published, scrutinised and acted upon.
The third ends the use of charitable status for political campaigning. A dominant political purpose becomes incompatible with charitable status, campaigning spending loses tax relief and the charitable purposes most open to political use are narrowed, with transition arrangements that protect charitable assets. Public money given to charities is confined to defined charitable outputs and conflicts of interest are mapped across government. Charities must publish their grants and regrants, report their political activity, declare their funding when they give evidence to consultations and publish all foreign funding. Transfers from charities to non-charities are restricted. The Charity Commission becomes more accountable to Parliament and gains the funding and powers to enforce the rules.