HANSARD SOCIETY LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT and ACCOUNTS Year to 31 December 2019
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HANSARD SOCIETY LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS Year to 31 December 2019 Company Number: 04332105 1 If our democracy is to work well, citizens must have impartial information. They need to be well informed in order to make informed choices. ………….Will my hon. Friend agree to work with the Hansard Society, which does such an excellent job, to demystify the work of MPs in this place so that our constituents understand it and can make informed decisions when they come to the ballot box? Sarah Newton MP (Con) Hansard, 26 September 2019 House of Commons debate on the Principles of Democracy and the Rights of the Electorate 2 CONTENTS Public benefit statement 4 Foreword by the Rt Hon the Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Chair) 5 ____________________________________ Brexit and Parliament 6 Research, education, events 8 • Supreme Court prorogation case • Mock elections in schools • New House of Commons Speaker election hustings Audit of Political Engagement 10 Parliamentary Affairs journal 12 Communicating impartial information 14 • BBC Parliament: the Brexit votes Hansard Scholars 16 ____________________________________ Key risks and uncertainties 18 Future plans and the pandemic 19 ____________________________________ Constitution and governance 20 Legal and administrative details 22 Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities 23 ____________________________________ Independent Auditor’s report 24 Statement of financial activities 27 Balance sheet 28 Statement of cash flows 29 Notes to the accounts 30 3 Public benefit statement Founded in 1944, the Hansard Society is the UK’s leading source of independent research and advice on Parliament and parliamentary affairs. A research and education Society The Prime Minister, the Rt dedicated to expounding the Hon Theresa May MP, principles, practices and addresses the House of challenges of parliamentary Commons during the democracy, the Hansard Society is Brexit debate on the widely recognised as the ’Meaningful Vote’. Westminster Parliament’s ‘critical The Trustees confirm they have 15 January 2019 friend’. complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to The Society’s work supports the have due regard to the Charity © UK Parliament/Mark Duffy improvement of knowledge about Commission’s guidance, ‘Charities Parliament and the development and Public Benefit’. The Trustees of reforms needed to shape our review the activities of the Charity democratic institutions for the on an ongoing basis and are 21st century. satisfied they continue to be a discount is also available for our directly related to the Society’s quarterly academic journal, Public benefit core mission and objectives. Parliamentary Affairs. The nature of the Society’s work means that The Trustees of the Charity (who Beneficiaries of the Society’s work most events are held, free of are the Directors of the Charity for to support knowledge and charge, at Westminster. company law purposes) present understanding of Parliament their annual report and the include a wide range of groups Any private benefits are incidental financial statements for Hansard drawn from across civil society as a necessary by-product of Society Limited (the Charity) for and primarily, but not solely, carrying out the Charity’s aims. the year ended 31 December based in the UK. They include Staff are employed and 2019. parliamentarians, parliamentary remunerated in order that the officials, academics, journalists, Charity’s aims are met. The Trustees confirm that the non-governmental organisations annual report and financial and the business sector, as statements of the Charity comply well as students and teachers. with the current statutory requirements, the Charity’s Most of the Society’s resources governing document, and the and publications are made freely provisions of the Statement of available via our website. Recommended Practice (SORP) ‘Accounting and Reporting by Membership of the Society is Charities’. available at a low annual fee, and 4 Foreword The Rt Hon the Baroness Taylor of Bolton Chair of the Board of Trustees The Trustees of the Charity are pleased to present the legal changes and manage the regulatory risks this annual report and the financial statements for arising from the Brexit process. The SI Tracker data the Hansard Society, showcasing our work in the generated new insights into the delegated calendar year 2019. legislation process and provided a rich vein of information that was used by MPs and Peers during We were delighted that the Rt Hon Sir Lindsay parliamentary debates and committee inquiries. Hoyle MP accepted our invitation to serve as the The data was also cited in evidence in the Supreme Society’s Co-President, following his election as Court prorogation case. Speaker of the House of Commons. Our constitutional and procedural concerns about 2019 was an eventful year, with the ongoing Brexit the SI scrutiny process are rooted in years of process, the unlawful prorogation of Parliament painstaking research, tracking and monitoring more and a mid-December general election. Throughout, than a thousand SIs each parliamentary session. the Society’s staff played an invaluable role, Until recently, the problems with SIs have remained providing independent research and advice about under the political radar, and it has been difficult to the constitutional and procedural challenges facing generate interest in them among MPs and the both the government and the legislature. media. Today, however, the combination of Brexit and the pandemic has moved these concerns Our annual Audit of Political Engagement rapidly up the political agenda, and the Society is highlighted public frustrations with the state of our uniquely well-placed to influence the debate about democracy, with opinions of the system of future reform of the Statutory Instrument process. governing at their lowest point in 15-years – worse than in the aftermath of the MPs’ expenses scandal. Our Scholars programme continued to flourish, Nonetheless, despite any exasperation they may with the Spring programme attracting the highest have felt about the political process as MPs ground number of enrolments in a programme for many their way to a stalemate over Brexit, many people years. However, the Autumn programme was developed a new-found interest in the greatly disrupted by the dissolution of Parliament parliamentary proceedings. Week-by-week, viewers for the general election, which brought the in their hundreds of thousands tuned into BBC Scholars’ placements at Westminster to an abrupt Parliament to listen to the BBC’s parliamentary end. We are very grateful to those members and correspondent, Mark D’Arcy, and the Society’s supporters who helped out, at short notice, so as to Director, Ruth Fox, explain the political and provide an informative and engaging programme procedural implications of the Brexit votes, drawing of alternative election-related activities for the the parliamentary channel’s highest-ever audience Scholars for the remainder of their stay in London. ratings. In the Summer we moved our office to Millbank Our Brexit Statutory Instrument (SI) Dashboard Tower. We are now based nearer to Westminster, became the go-to resource for campaigners, in a better-appointed office, which costs less and journalists and diplomats keeping track of this provides greater flexibility. The Society’s prudent important strand of the UK’s preparations for husbanding of its financial resources means the Brexit. Alongside it, our SI Tracker subscription organisation remains on a stable footing despite service helped a wide array of organisations across the challenges now posed by the Covid-19 the corporate and civil society sectors to monitor pandemic. 5 ’Critical friend’ scrutiny of Parliament Brexit and Parliament Brexit again dominated much of the Society’s Brexit Statutory Instruments (SIs) research activity throughout the year as the Throughout the first quarter of the year a key government grappled with the legislative and question was whether the government would procedural challenges posed by the UK’s exit get all the Brexit SIs it needed onto the from the EU. statute book by ‘exit day’. On a daily basis the Society tracked the laying of Brexit SIs The ‘Meaningful Vote’ before the Westminster Parliament and Much of the research team’s work focused on published regular updates on our Brexit SI explaining the procedural implications of the Dashboard. ‘Meaningful Vote’ required under section 13 ‘Indicative Votes’ of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, how ‘business of the House’ motions As MPs struggled to reach a consensus about work, the conceptual distinction between the the UK’s future relationship with the EU, the day of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU government agreed to hold a series of (Brexit day) and ‘exit day’ in UK law, and the indicative votes to help inform the decision- process for changing ‘exit day’ by Statutory making process. However, it was clear that Instrument. different MPs had different objectives for, and expectations of, this process. Some MPs 6 The House of Commons following the wanted indicative votes to test opinion—to take the ‘Meaningful Vote’, 15 January 2019 temperature of the House—on a range of different, non- © UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor binding options. Others wanted a series of indicative votes to determine which one or more of the potential models for the future relationship with the EU might genuinely command a majority and therefore offer a way forward. To help inform this process the Society published a briefing