At our AGM we will be updating Members on the work of the Society and looking ahead to the next year. Our guest speaker is political journalist Michael Crick, who will be talking about his Tomorrow's MPs project, tracking candidate selection processes for the next general election.
6:00-7:30pm, 14 March 2023
This is a Members only hybrid event: in person at our base in Westminster and on Zoom.
The agenda and associated papers for the meeting will be sent direct to Members in advance of the meeting. Our Annual Report for the year ending 31 December 2021 is available for immediate download.
Approval of the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting
Report of the Directors and the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021
Appointment of Auditors
Re-appointment of Trustees
Reflections on the last year and future plans: update by the Rt Hon the Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Chair) and Dr Ruth Fox (Director) followed by Q & A.
Michael will be talking about his @TomorrowsMPs project, shedding light on the candidate selection processes for the next general election. He is tracking when and how parties pick candidates for Westminster seats and who is being selected where. He will be sharing his insights into the next generation of future members of the House of Commons (and therefore future Government Ministers), what the selections tell us about the contenders, the winners and the state of the political parties locally and nationally. He will also be reflecting on the challenges he has faced in lifting the lid on the selection processes underway in 650 constituencies across the country.
Michael Crick is a political journalist who has worked for Channel 4 News, Channel 4 Dispatches, LBC Radio, BBC Panorama, BBC Newsnight and MailPlus. He recently launched a new podcast, Mugshots, profiling the people who make the headlines and shape our world. He is also the author of several books, including biographies of the Hansard Society’s former Chair, Professor Sir David Butler, and most recently of Nigel Farage.
The Rwanda Bill has made it over the parliamentary finishing line but not without some last-minute drama. We talk to the SNP’s Alison Thewliss MP about what went on in a small room, behind the Speaker’s Chair, away from the cameras!
To mark the Hansard Society’s 80th anniversary we are launching the Churchill-Attlee Democracy Lecture in honour of our first members, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee. The inaugural lecture will be given by former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Theresa May MP. This is a fundraising event for our 80th Anniversary Appeal. Date & location: Tuesday 14 May 2024, 7:00-8:15pm, Westminster (venue to be announced) Tickets: £25
With a general election on the horizon there has been a spate of new legislation and regulations to implement changes to the way the election will be run, with consequences for voters and electoral administrators. Parliament has not always had a role in approving these changes. This briefing sets out the core changes to the electoral process that have been implemented since the last general election in 2019, the role that Parliament has played in scrutinising and approving them, and the risks arising from these changes.
The Climate Change Act 2008 established a framework for setting carbon budgets every five years. But the role of Parliament in approving these budgets has been widely criticised, including by the Prime Minister. The Environmental Audit Committee has proposed improvements in the scrutiny process to ensure effective climate action, particularly in the context of the UK’s commitment to achieving 'Net Zero' emissions by 2050. These reforms will significantly alter the way Parliament handles the Seventh Carbon Budget in 2025.
The Government’s flagship Tobacco and Vapes Bill will ban the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 2009. The genesis of the delegated powers in the Bill – dating back a decade - tells an important story about the way in which incomplete policy-making processes are used by Ministers to seek ‘holding’ powers in a Bill, only for that precedent to then be used to justify further, broader powers in subsequent Bills. This ‘creeping’ effect in the legislative process undermines parliamentary scrutiny of ministerial action.
