Following the Autumn Statement Mark and Ruth are joined this week by Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee in the House of Commons. The Committee is the financial watchdog that has been going since the days of William Gladstone.

As Parliament’s ‘Wastefinder General’, Dame Meg has got a list of ‘Big Nasties’: major public sector building projects that have been delayed due to cost pressures, sometimes for decades, but which are now at a point where they can longer be put off.

She outlines her concerns about one of those ‘Big Nasties’: the Restoration and Renewal of Parliament (or the R&R programme). It has been hit by a string of delays. There are serious concerns about health and safety, governance and the lack of transparency surrounding the project. After kicking the can down the road for years, who would want to be the Government if disaster strikes the Palace of Westminster?

• 🎓 Access resources about issues mentioned in this episode via our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliament-matters-podcast-e5
• ❓ Submit your questions to us on all things Parliament using the form on our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/pmuq
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Parliament Matters is a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust • Produced by Luke Boga Mitchell, Hansard Society

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What a week! Suella Braverman's sacking from Government was immediately eclipsed by the appointment of former Prime Minister David Cameron as the new Foreign Secretary. Mark and Ruth explore the many questions this raises, not least for scrutiny of foreign affairs by MPs - what options do they have to hold the newly ennobled Lord Cameron to account? And with huge ministerial churn across key departments, how will legislation and parliamentary business be affected with the Autumn Statement less than one week away and the General Election date still uncertain. 

Then there's the PM's pledge to introduce 'emergency' legislation and a new treaty following the Rwanda ruling in the Supreme Court. Our podcast hosts visit crossbench Peer and barrister Lord Anderson of Ipswich to discuss what might happen next and whether the Prime Minister's pledge is the 'extraordinary step' he claims. They also discuss his new Private Members' Bill to protect standards of integrity and ethics in public service. 

Finally, we hear from Conservative MP Nickie Aiken whose proposals to regulate pedicabs began with a Private Members' Bill (PMBs) and ended up in the King's Speech. What are PMBs? Why are they such an important tool for backbench MPs? And why do the procedures surrounding them fall short?

• 🎓 Access resources about issues mentioned in this episode via our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliament-matters-podcast-e4
• ❓ Submit your questions to us on all things Parliament using the form on our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/pmuq
• 📱 Follow us across social media @HansardSociety
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• 🪙 Support the Hansard Society by making a donation. We don't have a wealthy founder or an endowment. That's why donations are so important – they help to support our work AND our independence: hansardsociety.org.uk/donate

Parliament Matters is a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust • Produced by Luke Boga Mitchell, Hansard Society

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Periodically we’ll have special ‘Urgent Question’ episodes to answer your questions about how Parliament works.

In this episode we answer questions about whether Ministerial announcements to the media before they are made to MPs amounts to a contempt of Parliament, how parliamentary reform can be secured, and whether we really need a second Chamber.

• 🎓 Access resources about issues mentioned in this episode via our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliament-matters-podcast-e3
• ❓ Submit your questions to us on all things Parliament using the form on our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/pm#qs
• 📱 Follow us across social media @HansardSociety
• ✅ Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest updates related to the Parliament Matters podcast and the wider work of the Hansard Society: hansardsociety.org.uk/nl
• 🪙 Support the Hansard Society by making a donation. We don't have a wealthy founder or an endowment. That's why donations are so important – they help to support our work AND our independence: hansardsociety.org.uk/donate

Parliament Matters is a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust • Produced by Luke Boga Mitchell, Hansard Society

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Four new Chairs of Select Committees have been elected but how much can they achieve in what is likely to be the final parliamentary Session before the General Election?

30 MPs have lost the Whip in this Parliament and a recall petition has just opened in the constituency of Wellingborough after former Conservative MP Peter Bone was excluded from Parliament for six weeks. So, Mark and Ruth discuss how the recall system works, why the Standards Committee is looking at how this and other aspects of the regulation of MP’s conduct and standards could be improved, and why it’s so difficult to exclude MPs from Parliament after they are accused of very serious offences.

• 🎓 Access resources about issues mentioned in this episode via our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliament-matters-podcast-e2
• ❓ Submit your questions to us on all things Parliament using the form on our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/pm#qs
• 📱 Follow us across social media @HansardSociety
• ✅ Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest updates related to the Parliament Matters podcast and the wider work of the Hansard Society: hansardsociety.org.uk/nl
• 🪙 Support the Hansard Society by making a donation. We don't have a wealthy founder or an endowment. That's why donations are so important – they help to support our work AND our independence: hansardsociety.org.uk/donate

Parliament Matters is a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust • Produced by Luke Boga Mitchell, Hansard Society

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the Government sets out its legislative plans for the next Session, Ruth and Mark look at the political and parliamentary prospects for the proposals and discuss the latest on what’s happening with HS2 legislation.

They ask why Parliament has legislative Sessions that begin with State Opening and end with prorogation, and disagree over whether it’s time to abandon the pageantry!

Mark and Ruth are then off to the House of Lords to meet Professor the Lord Norton of Louth to discuss the subject of his new book, the 1922 Committee of the Conservative Party, which has risen to prominence in recent years due to the number of Conservative Party leadership elections. The 1922 Committee was not founded in 1922 and it is not a Committee, so what is it? And is the selection of party leaders by the party membership really compatible with our system of parliamentary democracy?

• 🎓 Access resources about issues mentioned in this episode via our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliament-matters-podcast-e1#resources
• ❓ Submit your questions to us on all things Parliament using the form on our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/pm#qs
• 📱 Follow us across social media @HansardSociety
• ✅ Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest updates related to the Parliament Matters podcast and the wider work of the Hansard Society: hansardsociety.org.uk/nl
• 🪙 Support the Hansard Society by making a donation. We don't have a wealthy founder or an endowment. That's why donations are so important – they help to support our work AND our independence: hansardsociety.org.uk/donate

Parliament Matters is a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust • Produced by Luke Boga Mitchell, Hansard Society

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Parliament Matters, the new weekly podcast from the Hansard Society about the institution at the heart of our democracy – Parliament. This introductory trailer will give you a preview of what you can expect every Friday after the first full episode lands on 10 November 2023, three days after the King's Speech.

Each week, Mark D'Arcy (the BBC’s former parliamentary correspondent) and Ruth Fox (the Director of the parliamentary think-tank the Hansard Society) will guide you through how laws are made and ministers held accountable by the people we send to Westminster. They will analyse the often mysterious ways our politicians do business and keep track of all the running controversies about the way Parliament works. Why? Because whether it's the taxes you pay, or the laws you've got to obey... Parliament matters!

• ❓ Mark and Ruth will also be answering your questions on all things Parliament, which you can submit using the form on our website here: hansardsociety.org.uk/pm#qs
• 📱 Follow us across social media @HansardSociety and...
• ✅ Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest updates related to the Parliament Matters podcast and the wider work of the Hansard Society: hansardsociety.org.uk/nl.
• 🪙 Support the Hansard Society by making a donation. We don't have a wealthy founder or an endowment. That's why donations are so important – they help to support our work AND our independence. Donate here: hansardsociety.org.uk/donate

Parliament Matters is a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust • Produced by Luke Boga Mitchell, Hansard Society

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.