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Assessing policy success and failure is a significant challenge. This article seeks to address this by utilizing two case studies of legislation from the United Kingdom Parliament, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the Academies Act 2010, so as to develop a nuanced understanding of how and in what ways policies have been successful, or otherwise. Drawing on these two case studies, and the work of a variety of authors, the article illustrates the complex nature of the challenge, but suggests that by identifying "targets", "aims" and "processes" it is possible to make reasonable judgements about the relative success of a policy. It concludes that this framework therefore has considerable potential utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) in 1994 for the first time allowed British parliamentarians access to intelligence agency staff and records. However, as a committee of parliamentarians, but not a parliamentary committee, the ISC was a constitutional anomaly. In 2013, significant reforms reconstituted the ISC as a parliamentary committee, with enhanced powers and an expanded mandate. Drawing on interviews with ISC members and detailed examination of committee business, this article examines the impact of recent reforms. It argues that while reform has had a significant impact on the committee, in a number of respects it remains strongly constrained by government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors examine oversight by the British Parliament of the nation's intelligence and security agencies. The article notes that there was no parliamentary supervision of security matters in Great Britain until the enactment of the Security Service Act in 1989 and the Intelligence Services Act of 1994. The central focus of the article is on the actions of the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee and the wider role played by Parliament in the administration of national security affairs.

Social policy is of key importance to contemporary society, accounting for two thirds of public expenditure and, through provision such as the NHS, pensions, benefits, schools, universities and social care, touching on the lives of much of the population on a daily basis. It has also been one of the areas where the Conservative party have sought to change their image, and to some extent policies, under David Cameron. Drawing upon a range of evidence, including interviews with more than ten per cent of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, this article examines the potential challenges for a Conservative government of either stance, focusing on the extent of possible support for the Conservatives' approach to social policy amongst three key groups: the public, MPs, and members of the House of Lords. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of 9/11, the war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks in London, the Westminster parliament has become increasingly involved in the scrutiny of legislation and policy related to the use of intelligence. Yet until recently parliamentary scrutiny of intelligence in the UK was limited and uninformed. The creation of a parliamentary intelligence oversight committee in 1994 for the first time allowed for parliamentary scrutiny of the intelligence agencies. This article aims to assess whether parliament has begun to understand about intelligence since the establishment of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). It considers whether parliament and parliamentary committees in particular have a role to play in allowing parliamentarians to develop expertise in particular policy areas, and then questions whether the ISC has, through its membership and its published output, served to generate a wider parliamentary understanding of intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]