At the end of 2021, we saw the judgment in R (Police Superintendents’ Association) v HM Treasury, a case in which the High Court found that elements of HM Treasury’s decision-making around police pension legislation had been unlawful. In the same judgment, one of the reasons the Court denied relief was because to do so would have interfered with Parliamentary legislative processes. The year prior to that, we saw Adiatu, a case in which the judges explained that the courts could not interfere in the legislative process by holding that the process that led to a piece of primary legislation was unlawful. In 2019, we saw the refusal of a challenge to the absence of a Sikh ethnic group tick box on the census refused, on partially similar grounds.

Over the last few years, more and more pieces of controversial legislation have been arising, and increasingly often we see them being pushed through Parliament with little, or even no public consultation or engagement on their provisions. Working with Parliamentary colleagues, we have provided briefings on some of these pieces of legislation to lawmakers. In addition to this, we have also been working on an extensive piece of research looking at the requirements and constitutional challenges of pre-legislative consultation and engagement in the four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom.

Today we publish that piece of research, which we will be circulating to other potentially interested parties. The paper examines the law and process of pre-legislative consultation and engagement, and addresses some of the key issues that should be of concern to any interested in the standards of public consultation and engagement in everyday life. The paper also makes recommendations for lawmakers and wider society regarding addressing challenges, and boosting the status of public consultation and engagement before legislation reaches the floor of the legislature.

Briefing Paper 42: Pre-Legislative Consultation and Engagement in the United Kingdom can be found in the Members’ area of the website. For further information, please contact the Institute.