Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019

Policy background

2. On 31 January 2018, the House of Commons approved a resolution that work should commence on the restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster (“the R&R Programme”).1 In particular, the motion required that ‘immediate steps be taken now’ to establish a shadow Sponsor Body and Delivery Authority, and that their ‘statutory successors’ be established ‘by legislation’ in due course. That resolution was approved by the House of Lords on 6 February 2018.
3. The resolutions were passed following a report of the Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster, published on 8 September 2016. The Joint Committee’s recommendation was endorsed by a report of the Public Accounts Committee published on 10 March 2017.
4. The Act gives effect to Parliament’s resolutions by providing for the establishment of the requisite statutory bodies and processes to take forward the works (including substantive design works) in relation to the R&R Programme. The Act also enables those bodies to take on responsibility for such other Parliamentary building works as are designated from time to time by the House Commissions, in agreement with the relevant bodies. Two bodies will be established by the Act: the Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body (the "Sponsor Body"), which will be empowered to form the Delivery Authority (being a company limited by guarantee); and the Parliamentary Works Estimates Commission (the "Estimates Commission"), which will lay the Sponsor Body’s estimates before Parliament, and will play a role in assessing the Sponsor Body’s proposed expenditure. This structure will ensure:
   • Accountability and transparency, particularly as to funding;
   • That the relevant bodies are independent and the Delivery Authority, in particular, is able to operate effectively in the commercial sphere;
   • That Parliament has a clear role in approving the design, cost and timing of the R&R Programme.