Committee publishes further report on Parliament’s role in conflict decisions
6 December 2011
The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee publishes a further report on Parliament's role in conflict decisions in which it calls again for the Government to honour the Foreign Secretary's undertaking to the House to "enshrine in law for the future the necessity of consulting Parliament on military action", and to do so before the end of the current Parliament
- Report: Parliament's role in conflict decisions— further Government response
- Political and Constitutional Reform Committee
Background
Today’s report is the committee's third publication on the subject of Parliament’s role in conflict decisions.
Its first report was published on 17 May 2011 and called on the Government urgently to bring forward a text for parliamentary decision on the role of Parliament in decisions to commit British forces to armed conflict abroad, as a first step to bringing greater clarity to this key area of constitutional decision-making.
In response to this report, the committee received a letter from the Political and Constitutional Reform Minister on 21 July 2011, a day after the House rose for summer recess. The committee published this letter on 14 September 2011 in a follow up report, in which it expressed disappointment that the minister's response contained "so little of substance" and, while welcoming "the Government's undertaking to continue to involve us in future deliberations on Parliament’s role in conflict decisions, we, the House and the public deserve a clearer statement of the Government’s timetable for progress in this matter".
The Government's response to this report was received on 23 November 2011 and is published today. It does not contain a clearer statement of the Government’s timetable for progress, and therefore does not satisfy the committee's concerns.