Chaos reigns. Four hundred years on from the first report of a Downing Street Work Event, and a fractured country still awaits the publication of the Gray report. It’s taken on different significances in the different nations of post-collapse Britain. In the restored Duchy of Westminster, the press still write about it every day, carving predictions into old paving slabs before sending them out on particularly dangerous paper routes. In the Red Wall Kingdom, it has become a symbolic expression of fury, burned on special occasions to protest authority figures. And in the Republic of Barnard Castle, nobody can read the thing anyway. But that’s as maybe- what consultation-related activity has been going on in the legislatures?

Westminster

Not all that much of great interest from the Commons this week (though we’ve written briefly about events in the Lords here)- perhaps the most interesting calls for consultation came with respect to a private members bill, the Misuse of Fireworks Bill, an attempt by the Labour MP Sarah Owen to better regulate the use of fireworks. Fireworks, though undeniably pretty, do come with associated issues particularly around noise. For certain groups, this can be particularly exacerbated- pet owners, veterans and people with mental health conditions or who are neurodiverse can be particularly adversely affected by sudden loud noises.

For some time momentum has been building to restrict the use of fireworks to major arranged public events, rather than allowing just anyone to buy them and set them off. It’s not the first time a Bill such as this has been introduced, back in 2008 we saw a ten-minute rule PMB introduced that called for the reduction of the legal maximum volume of fireworks, something that this Bill also seeks.

During the debate, Ms Owens called for consultation with veterans and mental health charities on how the current regulatory scheme might be improved to reduce the impact. If it ever did happen it would be a very interesting consultation to watch. Whilst the firework lobby may not be reputed as one of Westminster’s strongest, many people love them and it could end up being one of those interesting situations where decision-makers must strike a very delicate balance between public support, and the need to protect vulnerable people.

Scotland

In Scotland, attention has turned to the challenging question of ‘living with covid’. We’ve been hearing about it for a long while now, and the Scottish Government is promising to start consulting on their updated strategic framework to do so in the coming weeks. The Scottish Government has seemed to take a much more consultative approach on the strategic approach to coronavirus. Whilst both they and the UK Government have consulted on more granular issues, strategic consultation has largely not been done by Westminster. The First Minister’s statement did seem to suggest that both consultation and publication might take place in relatively short order- so we’ll take a look at it when it emerges and see what we think.

Northern Ireland

An interesting debate on relationships and sex education (RSE) in Northern Ireland, often a topic that is accompanied by strong feelings. In Northern Ireland, the Department of Education requires each school to have its own written policy on how to approach delivery of RSE, which should be arrived at in consultation with parents. Whilst understandable in the circumstances, devolving consultation to this level can be a risky prospect unless properly supported- we have been asked before on this very topic to look at these sorts of consultations, and they can be very tricky to handle without proper resourcing in terms of both knowledge and finance.  Although most schools are essentially public bodies, it’s unlikely there would ever be a challenge to them, but it’s still a possibility. We’ll see if we can find out what extra support on this NI schools are given to ensure that their risk of challenge is low.