Motion #09
Anne Gayfer, PDC Coordinator
Thank you for reading this Report. If you are interested in policy development, we’d love to hear from you. Or look out for Policy Fest, contact with a group via Green Spaces, or get in touch via Policy Development Committee’s Green Space (sign up for notifications!) or email: policy@greenparty.org.uk
We started off well with a full well functioning committee. However, one of the elected members of the PDC has been expelled from the Party and one member has stood back from carrying out any roles, except those required by the constitution. In April, PDC asked SOC whether we could elect in the annual ballot and despite a reminder, we have not yet had a reply. It is essential to get the question resolved of how to fill vacancies; the committee should stand at 10 and we currently only have 6 members.
After conducting a skills audit, PDC advertised for co-optees and had an overwhelming response (133). From these, PDC was able to co-opt 5 members to support the elected members. Unfortunately, we have had a steady turnover of co-optees as members have had to resign for reasons not connected with the Green Party. Co-option has therefore been ongoing from the original list. Members who were more interested in policy formulation were directed to the relevant policy working group. The high turnover has made it hard for the co-optees, but they have made a valuable contribution. We regret that one of our most experienced co-optees is on a no-fault suspension.
We trialled a mentor system for co-optees and it did enable the co-opted members to get their feet under the table more quickly that in earlier years.
Professionalising PDC and policy working groups
PDC now have access to the Microsoft 365 (including Teams) suite. Everyone on PDC can now access and use the software, and we have an official place to store our files. We are also able to set up Teams meetings for policy working groups. Digital have set up standardised email addresses for all policy working groups. Those who have requested them have them and others are being issued gradually. Convenors can ask for theirs via raising a ticket with Digital. We’d like to record our thanks to Stewart Christie and the IT team, for being patient and slotting in our requests in what has been a busy year for them.
We encourage policy working groups to use Green Spaces. It makes them more visible to members, avoids using storage systems outside the Green Party, with the risk of losing valuable back data, and it’s GDPR compliant. PDC are happy to help policy working groups set up and manage their Green Space.
PDC works to an annual timetable and has
A Policy Support Job Description (we are ever hopeful!)
Working with policy working groups
The committee have made a huge effort to start up new policy working groups and to support existing policy working groups in updating the policy chapters in the PSS and making new policy via policy statements. Two new policy working groups have been reestablished – Democracy, Government and the Constitution (absorbing what was the Public Admin PWG) and Crime and Justice. International and Pollution both re-started but stalled due to losing key members. There are questions about how to best take forwards the Rights and Responsibilities policy working group; the Countryside chapter is being reviewed because much of its content has been moved into other newer chapters. It may be retained as a Rural affairs chapter. We do not have convenors for Forestry and Natural Resources nor Nationality.
Each member of PDC looks after 4-5 policy working groups. This support can be quite intensive to help get policy working groups off the ground, be intermittent to ensure that those making new policy are on the right track, or light touch for those who know what they are doing. This has been disruptive when PDC has lost members. We are reorganising to prioritise support for Voting Papers.
We’ve had a table at conference for the last 2 conferences, but in Manchester, the position of our desk meant much less footfall than in Brighton. We are looking at other ways to attract members and one of the policy working groups, with their link PDC members is drafting an article in Green World and Bright Green.
We had a very successful meeting of all policy working groups in July to look at how we might work better with other parts of the Party. Tom Scott (Campaigns Committe) and Julian Dean (Association of Green Councillors) gave short presentations and stayed to take part in a discussion afterwards.
Policy Fest
We have run 2 policy fests this year. Normally we like these to be a mix of being useful as part of the timetabling for putting motions to conference and sessions that are purely for interest. However, due to there being no spring conference this year, one policy fest was prioritised for Draft Voting Papers to enable them to meet the consultation requirements of the Standing Orders of the Conduct of Conference. We’d like to thank Louisa Greenbaum for her support in organising Policy Fest and helping run some sessions.
Manifesto
We ensured that the manifesto, to the best of our ability in the time available, reflected policy and where it did not, we sought GPRC approval to policy extensions and interim policy.
PSS
We think we nearly have the best version we can compile. It has been a mammoth task, and we would like to record our thanks to John Hopes for persevering with this job. At the time of writing the PSS is still only internally facing…… and PDC and the policy community think that our constitution requires it to be on the public website.
Appendix: reports from policy working groups
All convenors are listed in this “PWGs, convenors and spokespersons” spreadsheet, which is updated regularly and kept on the PDC Green Space.
Animal Rights: The motion to ban greyhound racing was passed at autumn conference and an expanded PWG, is considering further work directions.
Asylum & Migration: The Asylum & Migration Policy Working Group re-wrote the policy chapters of the PSS for Refugee & Asylum, agreed at Autumn Conference 2021, and Migration, agreed at Spring Conference 2023. Since then, we have been engaged in campaign work, creating resources for Green Party members and networking with other organisations to promote Green Party Policies.
We have a dedicated website where this year we have published a number of statements on issues such as the recent riots, access to healthcare and Palestinian refugees. For the general election we published campaign messaging resources and provided the content for the Sharing a Fairer, Greener Welcome section of the manifesto. We were also pleased to be invited to contribute to the BBC’s thematic review of its migration output which was published in May 2024.
For the recent Autumn Conference 2024, we ran a workshop on messaging and myth busting and hosted a fringe event entitled ‘Understanding Poverty and Immigration Control’ with invited speakers from the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit and Praxis Community Projects.
The PWG meets every month online, we welcome new members who can sign up via our website https://migration.greenparty.org.uk/ or Green Space
Climate Emergency: The Climate Emergency Policy Working Group (CEPWG) has continued to work on reducing the gap between GPEW detailed policies and the overall approved target to achieve zero emissions in 10 years. This work is increasingly challenging without significant behavioural change. The CEPWG worked with the manifesto writing team to try to ensure that our views were reflected in the published document. While we had some success, there were still significant variations so we brought motions to Conference to correct these in the Record of Policy Statements. Not all motions were successful, so we will continue to work on a way forwards to meet the challenge, including taking a new look at the Energy Policy Model (EPM). We would like to express our sincere thanks to Tony Firkins for his work on the EPM over the past few years, and are keen to find a way to take this work forward. A key success at Conference was the passing of motion C07 on climate ambition, which included the development of a UK-wide version of the Welsh Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. Such an Act would ensure the needs of future generations are taken into account by all Government and local authority policy makers.
The CEPWG has agreed that it needs to apply some focus on adaptation to climate change, given the lack of action at a global level. This will form part of our work for upcoming Conferences alongside on-going policy changes as our understanding of technology and behaviour change evolve.
Thanks also to Pamela Harling, who continues to provide great support as Secretary of the group.
Countryside: this chapter is being reviewed. There is no convenor.
Crime & Justice: active
Culture, Media & Sport: active VP due
Democracy, Government and Constitution: The PWG will be working closely with MPs on devolution policy as this is a priority area for the new Government. A Voting Paper will be submitted before 2029.
Disability: VP passed autumn 2024
Drugs: active
Education: The Education PWG intends to bring a draft voting paper to the 2025 autumn conference.Energy: active
Europe: The Europe PWG successfully completed its policy chapter in autumn 2024, and is now prioritising political work to assist parliamentarians in responding to policy issues that arise.
Finance & Economy: The Finance and Economy PWG has been actively working on rewriting economy chapter of PSS for 2 years and is endeavouring to bring Voting Paper to spring 2024 conference. We started consultation work in May 2024 and feel we’ve started difficult path to convergence. The group has 15-25 active members plus 115 members listed on our GPEW space and is using gitlab for version control on the Voting Paper. We request that the party provide financial resources to support Policy Working Groups and Policy Development Committee.
Forestry: Worked with Land Use to clarify ambition on UK harvested and unharvested forestry. Worked with Wildlife and Habitats on role of unharvested forestry to meet biodiversity targets. Requires a permanent policy working group rather than one off contributions
Food&Ag: active
Gypsy, Roma & Travellers: active
Health: Voting Paper expected spring 2025
Heritage & Tourism: Voting Paper expected spring 2025
Housing: Enabling motion due spring 2025
Industry & jobs: active
International: this group has stalled but PDC has action in place to re-start it Land: Further to the new policy being adopted in 2023, the PWG is strengthening its evidence base and connection with other PWGs to develop cross PWG policies and guidance for elected members
Local Planning & the Built Environment: Enabling motion due spring 2025
Marine & Coastal: Voting Paper due 2026
Nationality: inactive
Natural Resources & Waste Management: inactive
Peace, Security & Defence: active
Pollution: stalled but we have the contacts of the group now and hope to re-start Population: inactive
Rights & Responsibilities: inactive. Greens of Colour are probably going to develop a policy that sits outside this chapter. PDC would like staff input, as re-starting this needs a large meeting to be organised, so that all the relevant people a have a say.
Science & Technology: The PWG welcomes the addition of the new chapter section on artificial intelligence regulation. Those involved in AI and Data Governance policy are looking to form a new PWG in the coming months and are looking for new members.
Social Welfare: PDC has plans in place to restart this group
Transport: The Transport Policy Working Group produced a DVP for the Autumn 2024 conference and plans to submit a revised version for the next conference. The Voting Paper is due in autumn 2026 . The Policy Working Group has changed convenors twice during in 2024 but now has both a convenor and secretary. An important omission in the DVP is High Speed 2 (HS2) on which TPWG is divided. TPWG was not consulted on the Motion that passed, favouring HS2, although some of its members proposed the motion. The dichotomy remains to be discussed. The manifesto did not mention HS2 or high-speed rail although the financial numbers assumed only Phase 1 would be built. Wildlife & Habitats: Conference 2024, agreed its motion on ‘Aligning policies with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)’ (a sub-group including other policy working groups). W&H will be refining this to submit to the next conference, & continues with its brief across issues concerning wildlife and habitats, including supporting a Rights of Nature Bill.
Workers’ Rights& Employment: active
Last updated on 2024-11-02 at 12:44