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University of Glasgow research on the Scottish Parliament's public petitions system directly influenced processes for petition consideration through the production of a review of the petitions process, which prompted a year-long inquiry. Additionally, the research informed the Public Petitions Committee's public outreach and information efforts, with the aim of increasing public awareness of the petitions system. Beyond Scotland, the research has informed HM Government's ongoing policy debates around the operation and administration of its petitions system.
This case study focuses on the impact of Professor the Lord Norton of Louth's body of research on constitutional structures and procedures as that relates to the creation of mechanisms of post-legislative scrutiny in the UK Parliament. Since his ennoblement in 1998, the impact of this body of research on many areas of public policy, law and services has been both direct and linear, and via Norton's continuing contributions in the Lords chamber and through his chairmanship and membership of various parliamentary committees. The research that he conducted through the Centre for Legislative Studies, specifically that related to parliamentary monitoring of the effects of legislation and post-legislative scrutiny in the UK informed heavily Norton's Chairmanship of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, leading this committee and others to press the Government successfully to adopt specific proposals regarding systematic post-legislative review. Since 2008, UK Acts of Parliament are normally reviewed three to five years after enactment. This became established procedure and is included in the Cabinet Manual. Clearly, the official adoption of the body of research by the UK Parliament has impacted every piece of UK legislation passed in the current REF period.
Woodhouse's research has conceptual and instrumental impact in the UK and internationally. Instrumentally, her research has provided the basis for recommendations on accountability made by political groups, such as parliamentary committees. These relate to the mechanisms by which accountability is secured and to the constitutional relationships between Parliament and the executive, ministers and their civil servants, and MPs and their constituents. Conceptually, this impact concerns the debate by political actors on political accountability, whether of individual Members of Parliament for the standards to which they adhere or individual Ministers for their responsibilities within and outside their departments.
The role of mass media in politics and society has in recent years been a subject of intense public debate, as well as lengthy legal investigation and repeated political intervention. Dr Jason Peacey's research on the earliest modern printed mass media and their relation to government and state at the time of the English Civil War illuminates the origins of the current situation, and has made a notable impact on public understanding, of the historical roots of the media's role in mediating between states and citizens in both the US and UK. This occurred through a major museum exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, as well as a range of public engagement and media activities in Britain.
Award-winning and ESRC-funded research by Professor Matthew Flinders and Professor Colin Hay into political participation and public engagement has led not only to direct and on-going changes within the political system (notably in relation to the operation and governance of parliamentary select committees) but has also delivered wider impact through the promotion of a major public debate — embracing several million people within and beyond the UK — concerning the need to understand and defend the essence of democratic politics. Additional impact has been delivered on parliamentary outreach both in the UK and internationally through the development with the Houses of Parliament of partnership-based teaching of politics. The breadth and depth of this public scholarship has been recognised through a range of awards and prizes (including the Political Studies Association's Political Communicator of the Year prize and an ESRC Impact Prize).
Through engagement with government, parliamentary committees, individual parliamentarians, and the media, this research has generated impact which is both significant and far reaching. It has influenced substantive reform in parliamentary oversight of the intelligence and security agencies and contributed to proposals for House of Lords reform. It has also informed debates about various aspects of parliamentary reform by challenging prevailing assumptions, including through engagement with the media and by influencing the work of other groups with an interest in parliamentary reform, such as the Electoral Reform Society and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Dr Alan Renwick's research has had a distinctive, timely, and invaluable impact on the development of British constitutional debate in recent years. It has improved the quality of public discussion of key electoral and other democratic reforms and strengthened evidence-based decision-making in parliament and government. The underpinning research on the causes and consequences of democratic reforms was conducted at the University of Reading and disseminated both to policy-makers and direct to the public. It helped frame the debates around the electoral reform referendum of 2011 and the Lords reform proposals of 2011-12. As the UK Political Studies Association has recognized, it is a model of what Politics departments should be striving to do.
Fisher's research on the regulation of party finance and lobbying has produced considerable impact on British government agencies, Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Georgian government and key media providers. The research has influenced policy and practice through comparative analyses of the effects of regulations in party finance and lobbying and the desirability of pursuing statutory or self-regulation. Impact has been generated through influencing forms of regulation in party finance; shaping policy recommendations by the Electoral Commission, the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Council of Europe and the Georgian Ministry of Justice; stimulating debate and improving understanding through Parliamentary Committees and media outlets and; providing training through the Electoral Commission.
This case study refers to the development of strategic public affairs management and associated research on political risk and the regional economy at the University of Chester. It demonstrates both impact on business strategy at international levels and influence on government policy. The Bank of America (MBNA) case is evidenced as an example of effective public affairs research. The business is the largest service based centre in the region, accounting for 3% of Cheshire's GDP (2011). The research has informed both strategy and policy for business and government resulting in the retention of a major international business in the North West.
Dr Nic Cheeseman's research has informed and influenced electoral practices in Kenya and Zambia. In Kenya, his work shaped the findings of the official Kreigler Commission, whose report on the controversial elections of 2007 led to the restructuring of the electoral commission. In Zambia, his advice led the UK Department for International Development (DfID) to include parliamentary scorecards and the training constituency based officers of the National Assembly as part of its democracy promotion activities for the first time, and resulted in the World Bank adopting a more flexible Country Partnership Strategy. Dr Cheeseman also influenced the way in which policy makers prepared for and responded to electoral crises, establishing an innovative academic `Early Warning and Long-term Monitoring Team' to support the work of the UK government around the 2013 Kenyan elections. His advice enabled representatives of the UK to identify potential new sites of violence and to increase the pressure on the electoral commission to better communicate electoral procedures to the public, which contributed, albeit in a small way, to a peaceful election.