The King’s Speech is a landmark moment but has power shifted from Parliament to quangoes? (Image: Getty)
Power has shifted from democratically-accountable men and women to unelected technocrats, a major report warns. Bold changes to the constitution dating back to Tony Blair’s time as Prime Minister have put Britain on the “wrong track”, according to the Policy Exchange think tank.
It arrives amid outrage that the Sentencing Council – which ministers cannot override – issued guidance on sending people to jail which would make an offender’s ethnicity or faith a bigger factor.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick condemned this as “anti-white” and “anti-Christian” and warned it could lead to “two-tier justice”. The Prime Minister has said he is “concerned” by the guidance and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she is prepared to change the law.
Policy Exchange’s report – backed by former Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption and ex-Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland – argues politicians from both main parties have been able to avoid taking responsibility for controversial decisions because power has been handed to technocrats.
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The think tank highlights the “impotence” of the then-Justice Secretary when faced with the decision of the Parole Board of England and Wales that so-called “black-cab rapist” John Worboys was safe to be released – a move later overturned by the High Court.
It also claims tribunals are taking “ever-more more expansive decisions on welfare and immigration never endorsed by Parliament” and turns it guns on the “skyrocketing cost and delays of building major energy and transport projects”.
Lord Sumption makes the case that a system that puts politicians at the heart of decision-making is better than the alternatives, writing: “Politics is a dirty word. Parliamentary politics are despised.
“Yet these things are part of the essential mechanics of democracy. They are all that stands between us and a more authoritarian model of Government which we will like even less.”
Labour’s Lord Spellar adds in his endorsement: “To govern is to make political choices. These should be made through our democratic institutions, not be farmed off to unaccountable bodies.
“Remembering this, we can strengthen the public’s faith that their vote matters and that they can hold those who make decisions to account and change them if they wish.”
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The report was welcomed by Alex Burghart, shadow Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
He said: “There are far too many quangos and institutions outside ministerial control. The problems that have arisen this week with sentencing guidance to create two-tier justice are a case in point.
“Labour have lost control of government. Governments are elected to take responsibility.
“Ministers need to be able to make decisions.”
Reform UK deputy leader said: “Successive Labour and Conservative governments have always moved power away from elected representatives and towards unelected quangos and bureaucrats. Reform would stop this shift, return power to where it belongs and save the UK tens of billions of pounds in the process.”