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O What Extent Have Constitutional Reforms Since 1997 Made the Uk More Democratic?

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Constitutional reform is a process whereby the fundamental nature of the system of government is changed or where a change is proposed. In the UK this may also involve the process of codification. Since 1997 there have been many key reforms that have impacted on the UK whether it makes the country more democratic or even undemocratic.

The first reform is the reform of the House of Lords, this was were the voting rights of most hereditary peers were abolished. The Blair government subsequently passed the House of Lords Act 1999, on 7th November 2001 the government undertook a public consultation. This helped to create a public debate on the issue of Lords reform. In 2010 all three main parties promised to take action on the Lords reform in the 2010 general election, this was then followed up by the House Of Lords Reform Bill 2012, however this Bill was abandoned by the Government on 6th August 2012 following opposition from within the Conservative Party. A successful attempt to pursue minor reform of the House was made on 14 May 2014 when the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 gained Royal Assent. The original idea of abolishing voting rights of most hereditary peers, makes the UK less democratic rather than more democratic. This is due to the House Of Lords as a whole being an unelected chamber and therefore makes it undemocratic, however by removing the hereditary rights of some peers makes it less undemocratic as they are born into it at birth and not voted in. So this reform does make the UK slightly more democratic, but overall some peers remain and the whole chamber is still unelected still making it undemocratic.

The freedom of information is a reform which allows the public to access all official documents. This particular reform makes the UK more democratic, as it means no information can be hidden from the public and it allows the public to have the

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