We've launched an inquiry into dynamic alignment. We're interested in issues incl. how the process might work, lessons from other countries, parliamentary scrutiny, role of the devolveds, & GDP/trade/regulatory implications. Deadline for submissions: 20 April committees.parliament.uk/committee/51...
Lords chamber
A new Lords committee has been set up to consider a participation requirement for members of the House, plus a retirement age.
The Retirement and Participation Committee wants to hear from people with an understanding of the Lords.
➡️ Share your views by 26 February https://orlo.uk/iL4Qa
Looking for a present for a sports fan? Or just a great true cricketing story for between #Ashes 🏏Tests?
How about the only book in the world that features both Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Jonty Rhodes?
Shortlisted at this year's @sportsbookawards.bsky.social:
pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/getting-out
In the Folketing in Copenhagen for COSAC - Chairs of national European Affairs Cttees. I expect much support for Ukraine and the urgent need for a strong Europe - a good context to regret the disconnect between this and the failure of talks on UK access to SAFE. @lordseuroaffairs.parliament.uk
Our Chair @lordrickettsp.bsky.social is on this week's Parliament Matters podcast from @hansardsociety.bsky.social (at 21' 25"). He discusses the UK-EU 'reset' & our recent report on it, & Parliament's current & future role in scrutinising UK-EU relations, including prospective dynamic alignment
Our Chair @lordrickettsp.bsky.social is representing lordspeaker.parliament.uk & houseoflords.parliament.uk today at the Crimea Platform parliamentary summit in Stockholm, to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people & call for a just settlement including respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Last week, the @houseoflords.parliament.uk European Affairs Committee was honoured to host a joint meeting with the European Affairs Committee from the French Senate. Following the meeting the respective chairs, @lordrickettsp.bsky.social and Senator Jean-François Rapin, co-signed a Joint Statement
The Committee has published a unanimous report today on Northern Ireland after Brexit: Strengthening Northern Ireland's voice in the context of the Windsor Framework. The Committee warns that efforts to mitigate the democratic deficit in NI after Brexit remain insufficient. 1/6
Tomorrow at 10.45am we will be taking evidence from @cbarnard.bsky.social , @richardcorbett.bsky.social and Professor John Erik Fossum of @unioslo-arena.bsky.social as part of our inquiry into Strengthening NI's voice in the context of the Windsor Framework
committees.parliament.uk/event/24159/...
2. The Committee undertakes both legislative scrutiny of all Government bills and inquiries into constitutional issues. In doing this work, now for over two decades, we have developed a set of legislative standards that guides our legislative scrutiny. Until now, however, we have not sought to bring these standards together in one document. In this document, we draw together themes highlighted in our most recent reports to the House, published since 2017. Our focus is upon legislative scrutiny reports but, where relevant, we also draw upon relevant inquiry reports. 3. This report presents a summary of legislative standards which the Committee has noted in its scrutiny of legislation over the past eight years. In doing so, we have taken a lead from the UCL Constitution Unit’s earlier work to publish three editions of ‘The Constitutional Standards of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution’, though note that those documents were not produced by us.
It is very welcome to see the Constitution Committee publish a summary of the standards that it has held legislation to since 2017.
As the Committee explicitly notes, its summary builds on three of our reports doing the same thing back to 2001.
Read it 👉 committees.parliament.uk/publications....
Very pleased to be part of the 2nd edition of 'Exploring Parliament', with a chapter titled 'A Parliament for the Union?', co-authored with @woodstockjag.bsky.social
Our chapter looks at how the different parts of the UK Union are (or aren't?) reflected in Westminster procedure and practice
Jack Sheldon, Farrah Bhatti, Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Louise Thompson, Sarah Childs and Simon Burton sitting at the front of a classroom. #ExploringParliament is written on the blackboard behind Jack.
To mark the publication of the 2nd edition of #ExploringParliament, here's a throwback to the book's origins: 11 April 2022 when @psa-parliaments.bsky.social kindly hosted a roundtable at @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social conference in York... @estrangeirada.bsky.social @louisevthompson.bsky.social
Baroness Anelay spoke in a session on "Developing a new security framework for the European Union"
She welcomed the UK being described as an "essential European ally" in the Commission's defence White Paper & called for closer EU-UK defence industrial cooperation to strengthen joint security
This week: Interparliamentary Conference on CFSP/CSDP at the Polish Sejm.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns is representing the House of Lords European Affairs Committee
Over the last two days the UK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly took place in Brussels.
MEPs, MPs and peers discussed foreign policy cooperation, trade and youth opportunities.
A recommendation on "strengthening the EU-UK partnership" was agreed: www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/2938...
The Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee has launched its new inquiry on Strengthening Northern Ireland's Voice in the context of the Windsor Framework.
More detail here:
committees.parliament.uk/committee/76...
1/3
📢We want to hear from you about UK space policy and the opportunities and challenges facing the sector. 🚀
✍️We've launched a call for written evidence at: committees.parliament.uk/committee/77... 📜
⏰Deadline for submissions is Thursday 17 April.
#space #ukspace
For those of you interested in how the U.K. Parliament scrutinises treaties, you might want to take a look at the latest call for evidence from the @houseoflords.parliament.uk International Agreements Committee:
committees.parliament.uk/committee/44...
The Chair of the Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee, Lord Carlile of Berriew, today wrote to The Rt Hon Nick Thomas–Symonds MP about the supply of veterinary medicines to Northern Ireland.
Read the full letter here: committees.parliament.uk/publications/46982/documents/242892/default/
Lords committee
Lords committee
Lords committee
This week, Lords committees heard from experts, including @profbriancox.bsky.social and @bobbyseagull.bsky.social.
Four new committees began work exploring home-based working, social mobility, space, and the Autism Act 2009.
But what are Lords committees and how does their work impact our lives?
Why the French parliament’s Prime Minister’s Questions experiment failed
Yesterday, Calixte Bloquet & Ruxandra Serban published a post explaining why the National Assembly decided to trial a session of PMQs. Here they explain how it fared and why it failed
The UK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly - bringing together 35 MEPs, 21 MPs and 14 peers - will meet for the first time since 2023 on 17-18 March in Brussels.
The agenda for the session has now been published: www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/2933...
The @houseoflords.parliament.uk European Affairs Committee is launching a major inquiry into the 'reset' of UK-EU relations.
Written submissions are invited, with a deadline of 7 March.
More details here: committees.parliament.uk/committee/51...
A busy House of Lords chamber looking towards the throne. Members are sitting on red benches on either side while someone stands to speak.
The House of Lords is now on Bluesky. Follow here for updates and content from the UK Parliament’s second chamber.
We will be sharing a range of content about the work of the House and members. If you have feedback or want to tell us what you’d like to see, please get in touch via Chat.
Today at 4pm the Lords European Affairs Committee will take evidence on UK-EU relations from ministers Nick Thomas-Symonds and Stephen Doughty. This will be the first public evidence session with ministers dedicated to UK-EU relations in this parliament.
committees.parliament.uk/event/22379/...
Congrats!
