Sir Alan Beith MP challenges Prime Minister over constitutional renewal during Commons Liaison Committee

12.15.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 7th Jul 2008

Berwick's Liberal Democrat MP Sir Alan Beith has confronted Prime Minister Gordon Brown over potential constitutional changes.

The Commons Liaison Committee provides the opportunity for the chairs of all the House of Commons Select Committees to engage the Prime Minister in relation to issues of current importance. At the Liaison Committee meeting last Thursday, Sir Alan Beith, chair of the Select Committee on Justice, raised role of the Attorney General, the government's increasing attempts to control public behaviour, and the challenge to the balance of the executive and legislative that a Constitutional Renewal Bill could pose.

Sir Alan Beith said,

"The Attorney General combines a ministerial role with an independent one, deciding on prosecutions, giving legal advice to the Government, for which a measure of detachment is required.

"But because the Prime Minister requests the attendance of the Attorney General at all Cabinet meetings he is seen as part of the political leadership of government.

"The impact of the Constitutional Renewal Bill will make it very difficult for public investigations by the Serious Fraud Office, because the Attorney General will have a statutory power on issues like deciding whether a minister should be prosecuted, or whether the Government is open to legal proceedings.

"There is a real danger of muddling the legal and the political."

Currently, the Government is in the middle of a debate over constitutional renewal. The role of the Attorney General in a political capacity is under much scrutiny. The Government's plans to create deterrents to anti-social behaviour, as well as its reforms of the Parliamentary system, are also the subject of heated debate.

Sir Alan Beith sees the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill as a missed opportunity, in its present form. He said:

"How can a Constitutional Renewal Bill meet the ambitions which the Prime Minister has set for it, despite all the useful things in it, if it does not address the centralisation of power, fixed-term parliaments, the electoral system, all of those issues, which would, if altered, change the real balance between the Executive and the Legislative?"