Parliament Matters
The Cabinet Manual: Why Britain's constitutional "highway code" needs updating
Published: 4 June 2026 at 18:35 Europe/London
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Episode notes
The Cabinet Manual has been described as the “highway code” of the UK constitution, a guide that brings together the laws, conventions, precedents and procedures under which the Government operates. First published in 2011, it has not been updated since, despite a decade and a half of constitutional change. So why is the Government revising it now? What needs updating? Should Parliament have a role in approving it? And how important is the Manual as a guide to the UK’s unwritten constitution?
The Government has described its response to the Mandelson Humble Address as an “unprecedented piece of Government transparency”. But after publishing more than 1,500 pages of documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as Ambassador to the United States, what have MPs and the public actually learned? Has the disclosure shed any light on the key questions that prompted Parliament to demand the papers in the first place? And, with the exercise costing at least £1 million, what lessons should be learned about how Humble Addresses are handled in future?
The House of Commons Administration has been tasked with delivering significant savings through its new Savings and Improvement Programme. But could cost-cutting come at the expense of Parliament’s connection with the public? We examine proposals affecting Parliament’s outreach and participation work and ask whether a shift towards digitally focused engagement is the right approach. We also look at how staffing priorities have changed across Parliament over the last decade and explore what those choices reveal about Parliament’s evolving demands and priorities.
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Parliament Matters is a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
Presenters: Mark D’Arcy and Ruth Fox
Producer: Richard Townsend
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