Lord Donoughue and Lord Norton to give evidence on constitutional impact of coalition government

Lord Donoughue was Head of the No.10 Policy Unit during the Lib-Lab pact of 1977–78 and when Labour was in office as a minority government. Lord Norton is Professor of Government at the University of Hull and has written extensively on Parliament and government.

The Committee is likely to ask the witnesses whether the current coalition has led to departures from normal constitutional practice, what the appropriate status of coalition agreements is, whether collective responsibility still works in a coalition government, how the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 will affect future coalitions and how a coalition government impacts on the role of the House of Lords.

The evidence session will start at 10.30am on Wednesday 9 October in Committee Room 1 of the House of Lords.