With the enabling legislation for Brexit now passed, and Friday marking the official exit day and start of the transition period, Parliament has begun to turn its attention more towards the other business that fills the agenda. In terms of government legislation, it has been a fairly slow week with only two Government bills introduced. That doesn’t mean a dearth of things to examine though, as both cover major consultation-heavy areas. The first of them relates to something we mentioned in passing in last week’s update- fisheries. The new Fisheries Bill, includes extensive provisions for public consultations in its schedules directing the Secretary of State and other public bodies to consult ‘any persons appearing to the [public body in question] to be likely to be interested in, or affected by, the policies contained in the consultation draft’ and ‘members of the general public’ on Joint Fisheries Statements, the Secretary of State Fisheries Statement and Fisheries Management Plans. The rest of the Bill also contains provisions in the more general standard term ‘Before making regulations under this section the Secretary of State must consult such persons as the Secretary of State thinks appropriate’.  Although this particular Bill isn’t likely to be noticeably troublesome, with fishing long held up as a marquee area of dispute with the EU, the government is not off the hook yet on this one.

The second Bill is the promised Environment Bill which puts on a legislative footing environmental targets and takes a comprehensive approach to environmental preservation as a whole. One of the most prominent policies is the creation of a new Office of Environmental Protection with broad powers over environmental enforcement and monitoring. Although the whole Bill is replete with mentions of consultation directed at a range of public bodies, what might prove more interesting in the long-term are the various provisions allowing the creation of new regulations mandating consultation on a wide range of environmental policy changes and procedures. Although this is nothing new in and of itself, in such a wide-ranging bill, on such a hot-topic issue, it might be interesting to see how ministers use delegated legislation, and how keen they are on creating new public engagement obligations when they are not mandated to by statute. We will, of course, keep a close eye on it.

Consultation-related debate this week was largely focussed in two areas both of which the Institute has written about, in the Planning System: Gypsies and Travellers debate in Westminster Hall, and on the Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill. I do not propose to tread the same paths again, so I shall highlight one of the smaller mentions in an area we see coming up time and time again, albeit more often in a local authority context, and that is the debate on Wednesday on Special Educational Needs and Disability Funding. The responsible minister, Michelle Donelan, informed the debate that the government will shortly be responding to their consultation from May 2019 regarding SEND and AP provision. The Lib Dem MP (and potential Lib Dem leadership contestant) for Oxford West and Abingdon, Layla Moran, highlighted that the Government’s consultative efforts have focussed largely on SEND provision for children in schools, and a similar level of scrutiny has been lacking for children who do not attend conventional educational establishments. The minister refused to be drawn on this, so it remains to be seen what provision will be made by the new administration for this group.

If there is anything you would like to discuss further or to complain about the joke at the end of the first paragraph, please get in touch at stephenh@consultationinstitute.org.