How we can re-engage people with parliament

Our parliament should be the beating heart of our democracy but it is becoming less effective at scrutinising what Ministers do, and it seems increasingly remote from people’s lives. Last year only 2% of people said that they were ‘very satisfied’ with the way that parliament works, and a recent report from the Hansard Society on Prime Minister’s Questions said that it makes only 12% of people proud.

I think we need a proper look at how parliament works so that we can begin to make it work for people again.

This Government has treated parliament with a remarkable lack of respect. Ministers’ habitually ignore votes on backbench business, they add the majority of content into their Bills in the unelected House of Lords, and they are now so short of ideas that they’ve barely got any legislation for us to consider. There is a third less legislation in this parliament than in the last. They have also failed to keep their promises on parliamentary reform despite Nick Clegg’s grand prediction of the ‘biggest shake up’ in our democracy since the Great Reform Act of 1832.

A Labour government will reform our parliament so we can strengthen the ability of MPs to hold the government to account and so we can give the public a real voice on legislation that affects them. One of our priorities for that programme of reform is the scrutiny of legislation. We will introduce a new stage of scrutiny in to the legislative process called the ‘whole house scrutiny stage’, where MPs will be able to grill Ministers on any aspect of their Bills on the floor of the House.

This new stage formalises a role for the public in the legislative process. A new ‘public evidence stage’ between second reading and the whole house scrutiny stage will give interested and expert MPs a chance to seek input from members of the public and report back. The new stage will also give backbench MPs a greater role in holding Ministers to account.

This new process will make it much harder for half-written Bills to be presented to the Commons, and it will subject Ministers to a much more searching and timely examination of the content and intention of their legislation at a time when exposing inadequacies will actually make a difference. Just think what would have happened to the Lobbying Bill if Andrew Lansley had been forced to consult the public and then answer questions on any topic for an hour from MPs.

Labour will also reform the scrutiny of secondary legislation and of the financial estimates which give Ministers power to make changes to the law and to make spending decisions. The current procedures for scrutiny of both are so complex that they limit public understanding. This lack of clarity means that the power of the Government is going too easily unchecked.

These proposals from Labour are, I hope, just the start of a much needed debate about what we can do to reconnect people with parliament. One thing I am clear about is that we need more than just an e-petition system to reverse the crisis in our democratic politics – we need a new settlement.

Last night I gave a speech to Unlock Democracy where I outlined some of Labour’s plans for parliamentary reform. The full text of the speech can be read here.

Angela Eagle is Shadow Leader of the Commons and Chair of Labour’s National Policy Forum