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Kavanagh et al: British Politics 5e

Chapter 10

The constitutional framework

Department of Constitutional Affairs
www.dca.gov.uk/
The Department of Constitutional Affairs was created in June 2003 to replace the Lord Chancellor's Department. Although the pace of constitutional reform has slowed in Labour's third term in office the Department has responsibility for undertaking further changes to the constitution. The Constitution section of the website will lead you to resources which outline the government's position on constitutional issues including reform of the House of Lords and devolution.

Constitution Finder: University of Richmond, Virginia
confinder.richmond.edu/
The Constitution Finder website is a database of constitutions and constitutional amendments from across the world. There is little information on the UK constitution and nothing here which cannot be found elsewhere. Rather the value of the site is in the comprehensive collection of other constitutional texts. It is useful to review some of these to identify the common characteristics of codified constitutions and to get a sense of what would be involved if there was a decision to codify the British constitution.

Charter 88
www.charter88.org.uk/
With a name chosen to draw parallels with Charter 77 (a movement of Czech dissidents formed by Vaclav Hazel) Charter 88 was found in 1988 to campaign for constitutional and electoral reform. The website represents an extensive collection of critical comment and analysis on constitutional issues. The publications section is the place to head for. Particularly look out for the contribution by Lord Scarman in the Sovereignty Lectures series.

Democratic Audit
www.democraticaudit.com/
Democratic Audit is an organisation based at the University of Essex which was formed in 1991 to "conduct original research into the quality of democracy and political freedom in the UK and countries around the world". There are a wide variety of resources available on the site, but of particular value in relation to the issues discussed in this chapter are the audits of the state of democracy in the UK which provide excellent overviews of contemporary developments in relation to the constitution and democracy. Likewise, their manifesto watch provides a good summary of the proposals of the major political parties in relation to constitutional issues.

UK Freedom of Information Act Blog
foia.blogspot.com/
An excellent blog maintained by Steve Wood of Liverpool John Moores University. The site provides commentary and analysis on matters relating to the operation of the Freedom of Information Act. In addition it provides links to the 'disclosure logs' of freedom of information requests answered by government departments and public bodies. Should you want to submit a request for information under the Act there is also an on site guide for doing so.