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University 18 Yrs + | Constitutional Change

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New Labour and the Judiciary

The Government announced that it would take the Law Lords out of Parliament and set up a separate Supreme Court that would be the highest court for deciding cases and, although it was not to be a constitutional court, it would decide disputes between the UK government and the devolved parliaments over respective powers.

The Constitutional Reform Act, 2005 also transferred responsibility for the Judiciary from the Lord Chancellor, who had always been a government minister, to the more independent Lord Chief Justice.

A separate Speaker of the House of Lords replaced the role of the Lord Chancellor in presiding over the sittings.