Government sites

www. gov.uk

www.gov.uk/government/how-government-works –sets out in brief the operation of the executive branch of government in the UK.

www.parliament.uk

• The Parliament website explains the various roles undertaken by the legislative branch of government in the UK.

Select Committees

• The Parliament website contains a page outlining the role of Select Committeeswww.parliament.uk/about/how/committees/select/.

www.judiciary.gov.uk

• The Judiciary website contains an interesting overview of how the courts in the UK became independent from the government.

Open Government – Freedom of Information

• The gov.uk website contains a useful overview of the right to request information held by public sector bodies under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
• Statistics concerning the operation of the Freedom of Information Act are available on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.The website of the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk) contains details of the Commissioner’s role regarding access to official information.
• The website of the Information Tribunal (www.informationtribunal.gov.uk) contains information regarding appeals from decisions of the Information Commissioner under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Open Government – Consultations

• The Cabinet Office Code of Practice on Consultation sets out basic minimum principles for conducting effective central government consultations. 
• The European Commission (http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm) adopted a Communication: ec.europa.eu/governance/docs/comm_standards_en.pdf, in 2002 outlining the “General Principles and Minimum Standards for Consultations of Interested Parties by the Commission”.

Europe

• The European Union has a web portal called Europa (http://europa.eu/index_en.htm) which contains information on the organisation and activities of the EU, as well as links to the EU institutions and official documents.
• The Court of Justice of the European Communities can annul acts of the Community Institutions (see pp 293-7).  Its website (http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/) has links to the case law of the court, as well as the texts governing its procedure.