No news yet on Ken Clarke's 'constitutional abortion'

A response from Ken Clarke's office.

From: Gareth Young
Sent: 14 October 2009 15:59
To: YOUNG, George
Cc: CLARKE, Kenneth
Subject: RE: English Grand Committee

Dear Sir George,

I read with interest your speech to conference.

As you are probably aware the Hansard Audit of Political Engagement found that the constitutional issue that most annoys the public is that of Scottish MPs voting on English legislation, yet there was no mention of English Votes on English Laws in your speech.

In fact I don't recall 'English Votes' being mentioned at conference at all.

Has this policy now been kicked into the long-grass?

Best regards,

Gareth

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From: "LAING, Kathryn"
Sent: Mon, December 21, 2009 19:07
Subject:RE: English Grand Committee

Thank you for email which was passed on to Mr Clarke by Sir George Young. I am just sorry that it has taken some time for us to respond.

As you may know Mr Clarke chaired David Cameron's Democracy Taskforce which addressed the West Lothian question, and he retains a close interest in the framework around which governance operates in the UK. It is an extremely important issue, which as you suggest, has been neglected over the past decade or so.

His report has not yet been tailored into party policy, however, as you know, David Cameron has been speaking regularly of his commitment to a revolutionary shake-up of the parliamentary system - proposing the introduction of transparency and effective checks and balances where they have been eroded.

Mr Clarke does think that this issue needs addressing. He has called for bills designated as 'English' - and therefore concerning only England - to be debated and amended only by MPs elected to English constituencies at the important Committee and Report stages. He believes that this offers an appropriate balance between providing much greater accountability to the English electorate, while preserving the UK as a single state.

I hope that this goes some way towards answering your question. Thank you for writing in.

Yours sincerely,

Kathryn Laing
Assistant Private Secretary to Kenneth Clarke MP