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This case study focuses on the impact of the UoA's research on parliamentary public engagement, particularly the body of research on the use of internet-based tools by parliaments, produced by Leston-Bandeira within the Centre for Legislative Studies, This research has been disseminated through national and international `insider' practitioner networks, with the research having both direct and indirect impacts on the way certain parliaments have used these tools to communicate and engage with citizens. This body of research has led parliaments to amend their policies and practice relating to the management and support of web-based tools.
This case study reports three inter-related impacts from Peter Clegg's research at UWE, Bristol. Firstly, his research has helped to shape the reform programme and the return to self-government in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Secondly, it has helped to frame the United Nations Decolonisation Committee's views on how best to implement the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism. Thirdly, it has assisted the UK Overseas Territories governments to create an enabling environment for the protection and promotion of the human rights and dignity of People Living with HIV. It has done so by ensuring that these governments' laws and policies facilitate HIV prevention, care, treatment and support for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Ethics regulation across UK institutions has undergone two decades of rapid change and has sometimes resulted in fragile, controversial and difficult regulatory processes. Research by Hine, Peele and Philp has given rise to a better understanding of the conditions under which institutional ethics regulation and standard setting is more likely to be effective. Their findings have contributed to the clarification of the ethical principles that guide the codes of conduct in the UK public sector; shaped the institutional strategies of regulators (in particular the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority); and influenced international debate on standards in public life.
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.
Research conducted at the University of Sheffield on the `unbundling' of the state through the use of various forms of arm's-length bodies (or quangos), undertaken in association with a range of professional and regulatory bodies, has contributed to and informed subsequent governmental and parliamentary reforms. More specifically, research has shaped: core elements of the coalition government's `Public Bodies Reform Agenda'; the Public Bodies Act 2011; reforms within the Cabinet Office; the introduction of triennial reviews; and, a review of the public appointments system. Furthermore, research into the control and management of public bodies has led to the identification of a number of institutional and skills-based gaps being addressed by the coalition government.
Created in 2001, `Landscapes of Secrecy' constitutes a programme of research into secret service that has informed security and intelligence practitioners, shaped public policy debate and enhanced public awareness and attitudes. The focus has been official secrecy: how it is achieved; when it is appropriate; and how it is weighed against the right of democratic citizens to know about policies conducted in their name. Impact on key Whitehall users (Ministry of Defence, Serious Organised Crime Agency and Defence Advisory-Notice Committee) has been secured via workshops, policy-briefs and input into institutional design and training. Cultural and societal impact has been realised with internationally reviewed bestselling books, radio and television documentaries and a public exhibition in Washington DC.
The findings of Prof. Warwick Funnell and Prof. Robert Jupe have stimulated international policy debates on government accountability and the provision of public services. By challenging conventional free market wisdom, their analysis of the limits to effective privatisation have been used by stakeholders concerned by the direction of public sector reform, including government representatives, professionals and political pressure groups. They achieved this through accessible publications and close partnerships with these stakeholders that provide a platform for associated discussion events, seminars and media commentary.
There has been growing public and political debate on modernising the monarchy since the early 1990s, seeking to ensure the law best serves and harmonises with UK society for symbolic as well as practical purposes. However constitutional law is a highly complex area. Initiatives to replace uncertain 'floating' election timing with fixed-term Parliaments would involve reform of the ancient royal prerogative to dissolve Parliament. To allow female succession, or permit the monarch to marry a Roman Catholic, would mean overturning common law doctrine and ancient statutes respectively. Professor Blackburn's research and interventions have directly informed two historic legislative changes: the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. His publications-leading academic works on the subject — were widely consulted by policymakers and cited in parliamentary documents. He also presented evidence to the constitutional reform committees of both Houses of Parliament.
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.