Westminster Watch

Mark Hatcher reflects on the forthcoming Spending Review and its impact on the administration of justice  

On 8 July in his Budget Statement the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, set out the Government’s plans for running a budget surplus for the first time in almost twenty years in 2019–20. 

After an eventful week in Parliament, Mark Hatcher looks at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership triumph, the end of New Labour and the legal landscape of all the parties  

Who would have thought that two of the less well known members of the Commons’ Justice Committee in the last Parliament could or would transform politics at Westminster?  

The rule of law is seen by Michael Gove as “the most precious asset” of any civilised society. Mark Hatcher reports on the new Lord Chancellor’s first weeks in office  

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s Budget Statement was the last big set piece parliamentary event at Westminster before the start of the Summer Recess.  

Mark Hatcher examines the Magna Carta celebrations, The Queen’s Speech and the new Government’s legislative programme  

The political significance of Magna Carta was not lost on the Prime Minister when he addressed representatives of Church, Law and State at Runnymede on the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the charter. 

Mark Hatcher on the General Election, the new Lord Chancellor, members of the Bar elected to the Commons and the first all-Tory meeting of the Cabinet for 18 years  

We were seduced into believing there would be a hung Parliament.  

Ahead of the General Election, Mark Hatcher takes a look at the main parties’ pledges on justice and considers the impact of a Coalition deal  

“There’s no point asking experts… no one knows what’s going to happen… to predict the next general election you may as well play pin the tail on the donkey.”  

With Parliament dissolving for the election, Mark Hatcher looks ahead to the manifestos and the importance they place on preserving our system of justice.  

The dissolution of the Westminster Parliament on 30 March means that, until a new Parliament is elected on 7 May, there are no MPs for 25 working days. 

Mark Hatcher on the Public Accounts Committee and its devastating report into the legal aid reforms.  

The veteran Whitehall watcher, Professor Peter Hennessy who now observes the behaviour of mandarins from the cross benches in the House of Lords, once described the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as “the queen of select committees … [which] … by its very existence exerted a cleansing effect in all government departments”. 

With the General Election date fixed four years ago, the attention of all at Westminster is now on May 2015.  

Mark Hatcher reports on the parties’ plans. 

The Ministry of Justice was subjected to an uncomfortable public grilling on civil legal aid by the Public Accounts Committee, reports Mark Hatcher.  

When US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld answered a journalist’s question in 2002 about the lack of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups he replied: “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know.