Been quiet in Westminster this week hasn’t it? Only the quiet rustling of crisp packets, the gentle tinkle of wine glasses, and the satisfying sigh of someone who has eaten far too much cheese* settling into a comfortable armchair. But who doesn’t have work meetings like that? I know the last time we did, I spent four weeks on sick leave with some sort of dreadful illness last seen amongst Edwardian members of the idle gentry who overindulged. So what have all those work meetings being producing, other than rising profits for party planners, and falling poll numbers for the UK Government?

*a technical impossibility

Westminster

I want to start in the Lords this week with a beautiful turn of phrase, that I am professionally obliged to dislike. It came from Lord Goodlad, a former minister responsible for nuclear power, in a debate on the future of nuclear power in the UK. The Noble Lord cited a conversation with some French officials whilst he was in Government, in which he asked them how they managed to get power plants up so quickly, and how they dealt with public inquiries. He was, he reports, told “when you are going to drain the swamp, you do not consult the frogs”. Although the ‘draining the swamp’ part of that has taken on an entirely different tenor in these modern times, it’s a nice phrase nonetheless.

It’s rare that I get to be a proper killjoy to myself, usually it’s other people’s pleasure I get the thrill of suppressing by stepping in with a “Well, actually…”, but of course however the delightful the phrase may be, it is entirely incorrect in principle. When draining the swamp, it is crucial to consult the frogs. They stand to lose most, and their environment will most be impacted. So, we might suggest to those noble and dignified folks at EDF that, much like Dionysus, they should listen to the frogs croaking their hoarse chorus “Brekekekèx-don’t-drain-our-swamp-koàx-koàx”

OK, maybe that was a joke too far, but to those of you that get it, I’ll see you in the theatre at Epidauros. We’re fortunate perhaps nowadays that there is a greater appreciation of the need for consultation than there was back in Lord Goodlad’s days as a minister, and we’re certainly very pleased to see that our colleagues continue to explore new avenues to reaching out to consultees. In consultations on things that impact the natural environment conservation and animal protection often feature very heavily- the frogs may not yet be able to speak to us directly- but hopefully we’re becoming better at listening to their advocates.

Scotland

In Holyrood we’ve been seeing a returning focus to building back better for all after the pandemic. As part of this the Scottish Government is planning to consult next year on further embedding human rights principles in their work. An admirable effort, certainly. However, we do wonder if they might be sailing into stormy waters. The Scottish Government is constrained in how and what it can do as a devolved administration, and with the UK Government also looking at human rights, albeit in rather the other direction, there could very well be a clash.

It would not be the first time in recent memory that this has happened. Only a couple of months ago the Supreme Court ruled against the Scottish Government in a case about their competence to incorporate certain provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Scots law. Reporting of this decision naturally suffered from significant framing issues, depending on which papers you read (there were even allegations that the situation had been specifically engineered by the Scottish Government for political reasons), but it demonstrated the potential risks of disparate positions being in play.

If the Scottish consultation should extend beyond the largely devolved area of human rights, which it looks like it will, we might see more arguments over their competency to act. We’ll have a look at the consultation when it comes out to see if this is mentioned- it’s certainly the sort of information that’s important enough to include, not only to ensure respondents have sufficient information, but also for purposes of expectation management.

Northern Ireland

Allegations of underhanded shenanigans and fake participation were flying in the Northern Ireland Assembly this week as MLAs debated the Hunting of Wild Mammals Bill. The Bill is a private members bill which, as you may remember from editions passim, in Northern Ireland are still required to be consulted on. It was this consultation that caused all the chaos. John Blair, the member bringing the Bill, had conducted an eight-week consultation that received a record-breaking (for a private member’s Bill) 18,425 responses, most of which agreed that all hunting, searching, coursing, capturing or killing of wild mammals with dogs should be banned in Northern Ireland.

Concerns were largely raised by one of his colleagues, who noted that the consultation required only an email address and speculated that many of them may have come from overseas, or as organised spam. It’s a speculation we are increasingly seeing- particularly with consultations that do not preserve data or evidence about locations. Quite how much of a problem it actually is (or whether it is one at all) is tricky to assess without a lot more information. It may well be one of those things that whilst technically possible, doesn’t actually happen. In the new year I’ll try and put together a few examples for a longer piece- Inspector Stephen Investigates…

Wales

A somewhat more international discussion in Wales this week, not dissimilar to the one in Holyrood highlighting the recent adoption by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child of a new comment on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment. The adoption of this new provision was supported by an international consultation with seven hundred and nine children and young people and outlines basic rights in the digital sphere.

It is perhaps appropriate, and telling, that this is being debated in the Welsh Senedd. The Welsh Government has long had a focus on the future, perhaps most significantly embodied in the Future Generations (Wales) Act, and we wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see further movement on digital rights as time and competency allows. It’s another place where we might see tensions with Westminster. The UK Government is currently pushing through its Online Safety Bill, which takes a fairly paternalistic approach to online safety, and although it was consulted upon and has a heavy focus on harms suffered by young people did not specifically consult with them.

The Welsh Government has proven itself far from averse from taking a much more direct consultation approach with children and young people, and though the subject matter of the Bill is not within their legislative competence, I wouldn’t be surprised to see consultations on guidance and other lower level procedures, practices and principles.