Finn Baker

Engagements - Hansard - UK Parliament Hansard record of the item : 'Engagements' on Thursday 7 June 1990.

hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1990...

My new podcast guest is Baroness Arminka Helic who charts her journey from war-torn Bosnia to @houseoflords.parliament.uk. She brought together Angelina Jolie and William Hague to spotlight sexual violence in war but says the world has become numb to the issues #PSVI 🎧📺https://youtu.be/HAPr369AyPI

A warm welcome to H.E. The President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron and Mrs Brigitte Macron @ukparliament.parliament.uk. A moment to honour the deep and enduring friendship between our two great nations.🤝

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: Lord Speaker Jenny Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, one of two Green members of the Lords, joins the Lord Speaker. Listen now

The latest guest on my podcast is Green Party peer @greenjennyjones.bsky.social who told me how she campaigns on issues from #salmon farming to water #pollution in the @ukhouseoflords.bsky.social You can watch it here: www.parliament.uk/business/lor...

1/2 I am delighted to welcome Ed Davis as the next Black Rod. Ed will bring a breadth of experience to this high-profile and demanding role, including 35 years’ service as a Royal Marine and four as Governor of Gibraltar.

A job advert for research internships 2025-26 at the IfG. Six one-year, full-time internships starting in September 2025. Salary: £30,000 Deadline: Tuesday 2 April, 11:00

Interested in making government more effective? Applications for our 2025–26 research internship programme, starting in September 2025, are now open.

Closing date: Tuesday 29 April, 11:00 ⏰

Find out more:
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/about-us/car...

The Lord Speaker, Lord McFall of Alcluith, welcomes Theodoros Rousopoulos, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to the House of Lords.

A packed audience in the Robing Room of the Palace of Westminster listen to the Lord Speaker's Lecture delivered by PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos.

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock in conversation with PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos.

PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos delivers the Lord Speaker's Lecture, watched by Lord McFall of Alcluith and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock.

I was delighted to host a fascinating lecture at the @houseoflords.parliament.uk by President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Theodoros Rousopoulos, who told us conflict must be resolved through dialogue & legal channels not by “violence & the law of the strongest” @coe.int

'Parliamentary Secretary' is used in departments without a SoS

(Not always properly adhered to though: Cabinet Office had a mix of secretaries and under-secretaries after Dowden was made 'Secretary of State in the Cabinet Office' in 2023)

IfG Ministers Database | Institute for Government Search our database of all government ministers since 1979.

You can browse the database yourself on our website. Hours of Christmas fun for all the family!

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/ministers-da...

A screenshot from the Institute for Government's Ministers Database, showing Baroness Sherlock's promotion

A timeline from the Institute for Government showing the two roles Baroness Sherlock has had at the Department for Work and Pensions since the 2024 general election

The final* ministerial appointment of the year: Baroness Sherlock gets promoted to minister of state at the Department for Work and Pensions

*(or so we hope)

Yesterday I spoke to ITV meridian news about the implications of the new English Devolution White Paper for the South East - drawing on a recent @instituteforgov.bsky.social report

At 9:30 tomorrow @akashpaun.bsky.social, @tompope.bsky.social, @rebeccamckee.bsky.social and @matthewfright.bsky.social will be answering all* your questions on the English devolution white paper.

Submit your questions on slido (can be anonymous) or put it in the replies and I'll pass it on!

It’s a difficult balance - which is why it would be helpful for the Modernisation or Procedure Committees to set out a cross-party view on where that balance should lie, rather than forcing the Speaker to try to interpret the wishes of the House himself

When the previous Modernisation Committee gave the Speaker greater discretion to set a time limit on speeches, they recommended the limit never be less than 8 minutes. Certainly seems a principle worth revisiting

bsky.app/profile/finn...

Five things we learnt from 14 years of Conservative special advisers | Institute for Government The Cabinet Office’s next data release will give us the first clues of what the Labour spad cohort looks like.

1. On a bright November morning, the final tranche of spad data for the Sunak government was released, completing 14 years of Conservative (and coalition) spad data. At @instituteforgov.bsky.social we’ve crunched the numbers – here’s what we found - www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/14-y...

Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill: What happens next? | Institute for Government Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed second reading on 29 November by a wider than expected margin, 330–275.

Assuming the membership is approved in time, the committee may well meet for the first time before Christmas on Wednesday 18th December

Read our @instituteforgov.bsky.social explainer on what happens next

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/ki...

Source: bsky.app/profile/paul...

A graphic from the Institute for Government showing the 23 proposed members of the bill committee, including MPs like Rachel Hopkins and Danny Kruger

The Committee of Selection has met and nominated 23 MPs to the committee examining the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Slightly larger than a standard bill committee, it contains two ministers (both of whom supported the bill at 2R), another twelve bill supporters and nine opponents

Plenty of scope, then, for the current Modernisation Committee to revisit its earlier work, two decades on, and consider how previous reforms have functioned in practice

An excerpt from a report from 2000 entitled 'Programming of legislation and timing of votes' describing the operation of programme motions in the 1999-2000 session. It reads: "Two days had already been given to the consideration of the Financial Services and Markets Bill, most of that time having been spent on new clauses, before a programme motion was agreed for the remaining provisions of the Bill. The motion provided for five blocks of one hour each for various groups of amendments and for proceedings on third reading to be completed by 10pm." [The remainder of the paragraph goes into more detail on the debate.]

Likewise, this 2000 report on the operation of programme motions gives the example of the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which had two days for Report before a programme motion was even agreed

Again, 20 years later, it would be very unusual for a bill to be given three days for report stage

An excerpt from a 1998 report from the Modernisation Committee entitled 'Conduct in the Chamber'. It reads: "The changes that have taken place over the last few years in the rules governing short speeches have increased the discretion given to the Speaker both as to the time within which the limit can be imposed and the type of debate to which it can apply. We recommend that this discretion should be further extended to permit variations in the length of time allocated for speeches made under the Standing Order. There is nothing sacrosanct about ten minutes. There may well be occasions when, on a rather technical or emotive subject, a slightly longer period of, say, fifteen minutes might be more appropriate. On the other side of the coin, some debates are very severely time-limited. An opposition half-day debate, in which there art likely to be four front bench speeches, is limited to three hours, even if it starts on time. A debate on a piece of delegated legislation is normally limited to one and a half hours. Such legislation can be of great interest, such as the recent beef on the bone regulations. In such exceptional debates there may be a case for a speech limit of less than ten minutes. The formal limit would be for the Speaker to determine, although in our view it should never be less than eight minutes. Again there would be no difficulty in making the necessary Standing Order change, and no insuperable practical difficulty in operating the Table clock."

This 1998 report recommends giving the Speaker power to vary the time limit on speeches but notes that "in our view [the limit] should never be less than eight minutes"

An 8 minute speaking limit would be a luxury in today's Commons

Also struck by how some of the committee's reforms have developed in unforeseen ways

A transcript of oral evidence given by Peter Bone MP to the Modernisation Committee in 2007. It reads: "Mr Bone: First of all, I hate to appear before something called "the Modernisation Committee". I think it would be much better if it were called the "Reforming" or the "Structure" Committee. "Modernisation" has very poor vibes for me."

Reading back reports from the previous iteration of the Modernisation Committee and stumbled across what must be one of the earliest uses of the phrase "poor vibes" in the parliamentary record – by none other than Peter Bone MP, speaking here in 2007

Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.

(More details on her new role here: questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...)

Margaret Hodge: "So all the big battles have been with others – when I was fighting the BNP in the borough, when I was fighting here [in parliament, as the chair of the Public Accounts Committee] doing the dirty money and tax avoidance and evasion. So maybe I’m more of a campaigner, but I’ve enjoyed both and people think I’m an okay administrator. But it’s weird, the years as a minister were, on the whole, I think good years."

She described her legacy as maybe 'more of a campaigner' than an administrator - a strength that may well be key in her new role

And perhaps most interestingly, despite her long ministerial career Hodge reflected that many of the biggest battles she faced were as chair of the PAC, going after dirty money and tax evasion

Margaret Hodge: "Andy Burnham [then Hodge’s secretary of state at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport] rang me and said, “what the hell are you taking leave for? You’re bonkers.” And I thought he was bonkers to tell me I was bonkers."

She discussed taking compassionate leave - one of the first ministers to do so - and the handling challenges this involved

Margaret Hodge: "[T]hey were the most appalling civil servants. I just couldn’t stand it. They were pen pushers: ‘as long as it’s off my desk’. They’d never do a report in time. They’d never come back in time."

Much like the prime minister last week, she expressed frustration at the civil service machine, describing the Department of Health as a 'sort of Stalinist empire' and officials at the Department for Trade and Industry as 'pen pushers'

She recalled her contribution to Sure Start, including as the inaugural children's minister, and her sadness about how quickly it was swept away from 2010