Final Event

The Commission on Political Power met formally for the last time on 25 June 2025. Our meeting in the House of Lords was held to present and discuss the seven papers the Commission has published and to meet with experts and colleagues from Parliament and the democracy sector.

The Commission worked for three years to consider specific areas of challenge within the constitutional structure where we thought reform was needed and where we could make a  contribution. It was not our original intention to campaign for change, rather to look at aspects of the government that seemed to require improvement and to present some possible routes forward. We drew on experts, politicians past and present, and academics to help us think about ideas for reform. The Commissioners debated in seminars with experts and distilled the discussions into concise papers presenting options rather than recommendations.

We presented these ideas in the seven papers for others to use in any way they wished. We are gratified that teachers have used them within universities and schools and that the lively democracy sector that comprises many excellent non-governmental organisations and charities has invited us to present our ideas at meetings and conferences. 

We published the seven papers in hard copies so that they could be easily digested. The papers are on the Commission website and will continue to be available for the next few years. Although the Commission will no longer meet formally or publish more briefing papers, we hope that the website will carry on being useful to anyone who wishes to benefit from our work.

The meeting in June 2025 comprised many of the people we had worked with and it was pointed out that while there is a well-resourced umbrella organisation for the sector to share information, there is no organised coalition aimed at achieving change. The Commission on Political Power will not be a campaign for change, but we have offered to act as a host to bring together those organisations that are working for reform. We are hosting a meeting in the autumn to do three things: discuss what we can all agree on, agree on what's important, and agree what we can realistically do something about.

Please watch this space for more news and if you represent an organisation working for constitutional change, get in touch.

2025