* 1958 Life Peerages Act – Duration of their lives – diversity. * Parliament Act 1911 – Removed the veto of the lords. * Parliament Act 1949 – Limited time delay of the lords to 8 - 9 months. Last used for fox hunting bill. * House of Lords Act 1999 – HOC removed all but 92 hereditary peers. Gradual approach to change. The beginnings of change.
* A ¼ of bills begin in the Lords. * General debates take up 25% of the time in the HOC. * Around 20% of the HOC are women. * Tony Blair’s cabinet in January 2007 – 8/23 were women. * Atlee/Churchill cabinet: 100 per year. About 1 - 2 hours long. * Blair cabinet: 40 per year. 1 hour – ½ hour long. * Major: Longer cabinet than normal = maybe because of disagreements in policy. This is why Blair’s cabinet meetings could me so short – few disputes. * The current Cabinet Secretary is JEREMY HEYWOOD. * In 2005 under Blair, it was Gus O’Donnell – G.O.D. * Currently Minister for the Cabinet Office = FRANCIS MAUDE. * The Economic and Domestic Policy cabinet committee is a standing committee and is chaired by the PM. * The year leading up to the Iraq war, the defence and overseas committee did not meet once. * Blair was defeated in the Terrorist Bill in 2005 – larger than expected defeat. * 1976 = 750,000 Civil Servants. * 1999 = 450,000 Civil Servants. * 2004 = 520,000 Civil Servants.
Special advisers: * 1979 = 6 * 2002 = 81
* The amount of special advisers amounts to no more than 5 per ministry.
Resignations: * 1982: Lord Carrington resigned and took full responsibility for the complacency and failures in the foreign office which may have prevented the Falkland’s War. * 2012: Andrew Mitchell resigned over ‘Plebgate’. Abhorrent behaviour. Misconduct. * 2013: Nigel Evans, the deputy speaker of the HOC, arrested on suspicion of rape. He hasn’t resigned (yet?) and ministers fully support him. (This isn’t a great example, but it is very recent.) * 1994: Tim Yeo resigned after fathering a