Well, off they go into recess again (in Westminster at least), a welcome week-long reprieve for the Prime Minister from the risks of shady plots being discussed in shadowy corners. For MPs, it’s time to go and take the temperature of their constituents, find out what they’re worried about and how quickly they think he should go. I mean, what they think should be done. Yes, that’ll do…

Westminster

Not that much from Westminster this week, most of the consultation related discussion was on amendments to the Health and Care Bill. Two amendments in particular drew significant interest, one requiring a consultation on including alcohol in proposed advertising restrictions on less healthy foods, and another requiring another consultation on further measures to encourage more healthy eating and foodstuffs.

The first is particularly interesting, not only because we saw an exposition from Lord Vaizey on how long the process would be even after the passage of the Bill before a final version of the rules was arrived at, but also because of a point made by Viscount Colville of Culross about the thousands of hours of consultation that have gone into the new rules, which will apply only to broadcast media. This, he highlighted, might be a problem given that children increasingly prevalently watch video-sharing websites such as Youtube.

That gave us an interesting question about the transferability of learning between consultations. Although it’s certainly true that if the government wished to replicate the measures in new media they would likely have to consult again, might this consultation and any consequent learning prove useful in shaping that one, even though it’s in a different area? It certainly might, give some pointers on how the industry feels about such things or help demonstrate whether there is a need for further consultations or restrictions.

Might the two also provide markedly different results? It’s certainly possible. Although ostensibly serving the same purpose, the rules are already quite different between traditional broadcast media and online services. There is also a ‘feeling’ of difference. Whilst everyone is familiar (at least loosely) with the way traditional broadcast media works, the internet still, even after all these years feels a little less regulated. I’m loathe to use the term ‘wild west’, because it’s not quite like that, but it still manages to feel more innovative and responsive. Whilst this particular endeavour is unlikely to pay off as a non-government amendment, consultations on regulating the internet are always interesting to watch.

 Scotland

More discussion in Holyrood about the impending nationalisation of ScotRail, including further debate on the ticket office consultation we mentioned last week. One of the inevitable consequences of taking on the management of ScotRail for the Scottish Government will be a move in where the metaphorical buck stops. Previously, consultations on timetabling and ticket offices were largely the responsibility of the company running the trains, whereas now they will become the responsibility of the Scottish Government. Of course in reality, they’ll be run by the nationalised company running the trains, but public perception of where responsibility lies will shift. The current discussions already seem to be showing signs of this, with the Scottish Government pointing out that the consultations have been run by external bodies. It’ll be interesting to see whether this will wash in the future as a position when ministers have made so much of the nationalisation as a success…

Northern Ireland

A note of caution to perhaps be sounded in Northern Ireland with further discussion of the upcoming Energy Strategy and Fracking. Arising in the context of a bill to ban onshore fracking, Members pointed out that the private members’ bill appears to pre-empt the consultation on the energy strategy. We’re still doing more work on PMB consultations and this gives us another angle of discussion- what happens if a PMB happens to pre-empt a consultation on a Government policy? In many ways, it’s a hypothetical question because PMBs rarely become law- but it is an interesting one to ask nonetheless. Fracking in particular is a real hotspot, those of you have been with us for a while may remember the Talk Fracking JR, where a UK Government consultation was found to be unlawful as it didn’t properly take into account submissions.