The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (c. 25), or CRAG Act, is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

UK constitutional law The United Kingdom constitutional law concerns the governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With the oldest continuous political system on Earth, the British constitution is not contained in a single code but princ ...

which affected the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and the ratification of

treaties A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal perso ...

, and made other significant changes. It extends to all parts of the United Kingdom.

Commencements

The Act was passed on 8 April 2010, in the last days of Gordon Brown's premiership, and before the change of government that resulted from the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

on 6 May. Part 4 (tax status of MPs and members of the House of Lords) came into force immediately on the passing of the Act. Some of the Act's provisions were brought into force in April or May 2010 by a commencement order made on 15 April 2010 by

Bridget Prentice Bridget Theresa Prentice (' Corr; born 28 December 1952) is a British politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham East from 1992 to 2010. She was married to the Labour MP Gordon Prentice from 1975 until their divorce in 2000. ...

, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

). Ministers of the incoming government made commencement orders for the Act's transitional and other provisions.

Francis Maude Francis Anthony Aylmer Maude, Baron Maude of Horsham, (born 4 July 1953) is a British Conservative Party politician and life peer who served as Minister of State for Trade and Investment from 2015 to 2016, having previously served as Minister ...

Minister for the Cabinet Office The Minister for the Cabinet Office is a position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The minister is responsible for the work and policies of the Cabinet Office, and since February 2022, reports to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan ...

made the commencement order for Parts 1 (the civil service), 2 (ratification of treaties) and 5 (transparency of government financial reporting to Parliament) to come into force on 11 November 2010.

The Act

Treaty ratification

With regard to parliamentary approval for the ratification of treaties, Part II of the Act gave the

Ponsonby Rule The Ponsonby Rule was a constitutional convention in United Kingdom constitutional law that dictated that most international treaties had to be laid before Parliament 21 days before ratification. On 11 November 2010, Part 2 of the Constitution ...

a statutory footing, but did not place the

declaration of war A declaration of war is a formal act by which one state (polity), state announces existing or impending war activity against another. The declaration is a performative speech act (or the signing of a document) by an authorized party of a nationa ...

and the deployment of the British armed forces onto a similar statutory footing, as was first intended when the bill came to Parliament, leaving them instead to the

royal prerogative The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in th ...

, as before. Part II's rules also do not apply to treaties involving the European Union as provisions for these are made in the

European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 The European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 (c. 24) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom governing elections to the European Parliament. The Act divided the United Kingdom into various regions to which were allocated a number of ...

and the

European Union (Amendment) Act 2008 The European Union (Amendment) Act 2008 (c. 7) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It gives effect in the law of the United Kingdom to the Lisbon Treaty, which was signed there by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 14 December 2 ...

. In

divisional court A divisional court, in relation to the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, means a court sitting with at least two judges.Section 66, Senior Courts Act 1981. Matters heard by a divisional court include some criminal cases in the High Court ...

proceedings in the High Court of England and Wales, concerning the use of the royal prerogative for the issue of notification in accordance with

Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union Withdrawal from the European Union is the legal and political process whereby an EU member state ceases to be a member of the Union. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union ( TEU) states that "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from t ...

(the Lisbon Treaty) (''

R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union ''R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union'' is a United Kingdom constitutional law case decided by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom Supreme Court on 24 January 2017, which ruled that the Government ...

''), the

Lord Chief Justice Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

described the statutory procedure in Part 2 of the Act as "of critical importance".

Civil service

The Act put the civil service on a statutory footing for the first time. Its provisions include the establishment of a

Civil Service Commission A civil service commission is a government agency that is constituted by legislature to regulate the employment and working conditions of civil servants, oversee hiring and promotions, and promote the values of the public service. Its role is rou ...

and a power for the

Minister for the Civil Service In the Government of the United Kingdom, the minister for the Civil Service is responsible for regulations regarding His Majesty's Civil Service, the role of which is to assist the governments of the United Kingdom in formulating and implementin ...

to manage the civil service, and it provides for a requirement that appointments to the civil service are to be made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. It also requires the Minister for the Civil Service to publish a code of conduct which provides that a special adviser (defined in section 15) may not authorise the expenditure of public funds, or exercise any power in relation to the management of any part of the civil service, or exercise any power under the royal prerogative; but the Act expressly states that the code need not require special advisers to carry out their duties with objectivity or impartiality. The

Institute for Government The Institute for Government (IfG) is a British independent think tank which aims to improve government effectiveness through research and analysis. Based at 2 Carlton Gardens in central London and founded as a charity in 2008, it was initially ...

's publication ''Legislating for a Civil Service'' (2013) questioned the extent to which the Act had changed anything in practice, and commented that the legislation did not set out much about the structure or practice of Whitehall, unlike the Westminster-style systems of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, where more of how their civil services work was codified. It mentioned that, while all four systems have a commission to regulate appointments to the civil service, in Australia, for example, the specific text of the code of conduct is set out in primary legislation.

FOI exemption for royal family

Provisions of the Act that amended the

Freedom of Information Act 2000 The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation ...

came into force on 19 January 2011. The commencement order was made by

Kenneth Clarke Kenneth Harry Clarke, Baron Clarke of Nottingham, (born 2 July 1940), often known as Ken Clarke, is a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 1992 to 1993 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1993 to 1997 as well as serving as de ...

(

). It made information relating to communications with the

sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'. The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...

, the heir or the second in line to the throne subject to an absolute exemption from disclosure, and made information relating to communications with other members of the

royal family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...

or the royal household subject to a qualified exemption.

Other provisions

A commencement order for transitional provisions was made in July 2010 by

Mark Harper Mark James Harper (born 26 February 1970) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Transport since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Me ...

, (Parliamentary Secretary, Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, in the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

). Sections in Part 3 of the Act, for amending the

Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 The Parliamentary Standards Act 2009 (c.13) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that entered into force in part on 21 July 2009, largely as a response to the Parliamentary expenses scandal. The Act was considered urgent by the gov ...

, were brought into force in April−May 2010.The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (Commencement No. 1) Order 201

/ref> As a result of the provisions concerning the tax status of members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords (§§ 41−42 in Part 4), five

life peers In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are cr ...

withdrew from the House of Lords in order to retain non-dom status for UK tax purposes:

References

External links

Text of the ActList of votesParliament's role in ratifying treaties
{{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2010 Constitutional laws of the United Kingdom Royal prerogative Governance in the United Kingdom Reform in the United Kingdom Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning the House of Lords Civil Service (United Kingdom)