Our evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee

During May, we submitted evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee inquiry into the Future Governance of the UK.

Our evidence, which has just been published by the committee, makes the case that how our democracy functions – the “rules of the game” – should be opened up to the public to consider and decide upon.

Read our evidence

We recommend the establishment of a citizen-led constitutional convention with real powers to decide the future shape of the UK. This should use a combination of: 

1. A broad participatory democracy process for hearing values, hopes, concerns and priorities from across society;
2. A deep deliberative democracy process for engaging with different points of view, considering trade-offs, developing proposals and reaching agreement;
3. A collective direct democracy process for making decisions on proposals.

The committee has received evidence from a number of organisations and experts advocating for similar approaches, including:

• Citizens' Convention on UK Democracy
• Electoral Reform Society
• Extinction Rebellion UK: Citizens' Assembly Working Group
• Ipsos Mori
• Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust
• King's College London
• National Centre for Social Research
• New Democracy Foundation
• Professor David Farrell and Professor Jane Suiter
• Professor Graham Smith
• Professor James Fishkin
• RSA
• Sortition Foundation
• Unlock Democracy

Photo by Marcin Nowak on Unsplash