The new Labour government took power in 1997 began to reform the British constitution, introducing the Human rights act, Devolution and some reform of the House of Lords among other less important changes. Unfortunately Labour did not complete those reforms and a great deal was left undone. The question since then is how much has the constitution been reformed and how positive effect these reforms have had.
There is no doubt that the HRA has transformed Britain. It created a means by which government and other bodies could be prevented from abusing our rights. The courts were given powers to enforce rights. This has meant that we now have more privacy and have the right to be treated equally under the law.
However, the HRA was not made biding on Parliament and so governments can still abuse rights. This has been seen with anti-terrorism acts which give the police great powers including the ability to arrest suspects without trial. The HRA also does not protect us against the growth of surveillance and stop search powers or the prevention of some demonstrations. Similarly, the FOI act has been partly effective as it enabled us to know about the MP’s expense scandal and other aspects of government. However government can still conceal sensitive information thus perhaps the act should have been stronger.
The introduction of Devolution as well supported in Scotland and Wales has made a huge difference in those countries as well as in Northern Ireland, the people of those countries support it and have demanded more. Thus the main issue is that devolution did not go far enough perhaps. As some also suggest that there should be proper federalism for these countries to have true independence. So it has been effective in decentralising government, but not effective because there is still an appetite for more independence particularly in Scotland and which is growing in Wales.
However, it soon seems that more powers will be devolved to Wales and Scotland with the success of such political parties such as Plaid Cymru in the Welsh assembly and the SNP in the Scottish parliament.
The reform of the HOL by removing all but 92 of the hereditary peers had some impact. This was effective as it made the HOL less undemocratic but it did not make it any more democratic. Therefore if we are to truly have an effective second chamber it will need to be elected and therefore accountable, many would argue. As the creation of the supreme court which has no more power than the old HOL. Therefore it does not have more ability to effectively control government power. Thus the judges cannot overturn what parliament legislates and so they are very limited.
However, some reforms were not made at all. As for example, Labour promised to introduce proportional representation for general elections but it dropped this proposal when it came to power. Thus we are still operating with an outdated electoral system that was to preserve the two party system and give too much power to government. As PR was introduced in devolved governments but not at Westminster. So the plans to have more control over the two main parties have not been effective. As similarly we have still not seen an effective reformation of the HOL.
The reformation of the prerogative powers of the prime minister was proposed by Brown but nothing was done and we still operate under the old system where the PM has to have a great deal of arbitrary power from the royal prerogative. As the collation government introduced fixed term parliaments which would stop the PM from having the power to call an election to their own parties’ advantage but it is not clear whether it will effectively control his power. As the other reforms such as to reduce the size of the HOC and equalise the size of the constituencies do not seem to be as significant so they are deemed to be not so potentially effective.
The most effective reform some would say is to codify the constitution and in doing so entrench it. Thus arguing that it will help to control too much executive power and will help to effectively protect human rights and will be clearer for people to understand.
On the other hand, such a constitutional change may not be effective because it might make it less flexible and unable to adapt to the changing circumstances for example, the recent hung parliament and coalition government.
To conclude, Britain is more democratic today than in 1997 with human rights protected being the people entitled to more info and governments in Scotland, Wales and NI more sensitive to public opinion. On the other hand, there is still much to be done on the electoral reform and the HOL reform processes. We can therefore conclude that the constitution has only been partly effective in its reformation as until it is codified and entrenched it will always be vulnerable to the actions of powerful governments despite steps to make it more effective in the future.