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The Politics Shed- A Free Text Book for all students of Politics.
From 22 October 2015 until 13 July 2021, the House of Commons Standing Orders gave effect to a procedure known as 'English votes for English laws' (EVEL). The House agreed to suspend the EVEL standing orders on 22 April 2020. They were removed altogether following a decision of the House on 13 July 2021.
Essetially, the decision to introduce EVEL was a response to the demands of the coalition and a desire to appease the SNP
It provides evidence of:
The flexibility of the UK constitution- which can so easily be changed.
The dominance of governments- ie they can change the constitution to suit short-term political ends.
The failure of reform since the Westloathian Question remains unanswered.
The new procedures were approved by a Commons vote in October 2015[5] and used for the first time in the House of Commons in January 2016.
The revised process is:
The Speaker judges which parts of a bill relate to just England, or England and Wales
An England-only committee stage considers bills deemed "England-only in their entirety"
Membership of this committee reflects the number of MPs each party has in England
Where sections of legislation relate only to England or England and Wales, the agreement of a Legislative Grand Committee composed of all English, English and Welsh or English, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs, is required
A brief existence
A brief existence
While the Conservatives were in government from 2010 to 2015 in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, they set up the McKay Commission to look into the question. The Commission proposed that bills in the House of Commons that affected England solely or differently should require a majority vote of MPs representing English constituencies. The Conservative manifesto for the 2015 general election included a proposal that England-only legislation should require approval from a Legislative Grand Committee before its Third Reading in the House of Commons. Having won a majority in that election, the Conservative government used a change in standing orders in October 2015 to give MPs representing English constituencies a "veto" over laws only affecting England.
EVEL was suspended in April 2020, and in July 2021 the House of Commons abolished it, returning to the previous system with no special mechanism for English laws
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