Dividend Policy With Reference To British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 2922 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Cause and effect essay Did you like this example? Dividends and the implication of dividend choices have been the subject of much debate, particularly in the recent economic crisis where investors and other stakeholders are becoming increasingly nervous about the financial standing of companies in which they have an interest. On a basic level, dividends also provide a regular income to investors and, as such, the choice of how much dividend to pay out is seen as a critical signal from the management team. Investors will often select certain companies, based on the possibility that they are likely to receive a regular dividend and any changes in the underlying policies can have a very detrimental impact on the perceptions of both current and prospective investors. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Dividend Policy With Reference To British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc" essay for you Create order Although some investors will invest in a company for capital growth, the dividend level is still seen as a strong signal; therefore, regular analysis of dividend policies and payout rates are likely to be undertaken. In this report, Sky (British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (BSY.L)) will be looked at, in terms of the way in which it has approached dividend payout in the last five years. Theory relating to dividend policy and the approaches taken will then be considered in order to determine whether Sky has complied with general theories, or whether it has deviated from what would be expected based on theory. Empirical data is contained in the appendices. Background to Sky Before going on to consider the dividend policies and how these have been applied by Sky, it is helpful to put the matter in context and to determine the way in which the company has been performing, in recent years, so that this can be correlated with any changes in dividend policy. The company was formed in its current standing, back in 1990, when there was a merger of British Satellite Broadcasting and Sky Television. This was an equal merger and created the company that we see today, Sky. Prior to the merger, both companies were sustaining heavy financial losses and it was found that by undertaking the merger, it was possible to gain economies of scale. It was also possible for the two companies to draw on each others strengths, for example, British Satellite Broadcasting had a range of solid advertisers, whereas Sky Television was renowned for having a wider range of channels. By pooling these two resources, it was possible for the company to go from strength to strength and it would be expected that this will be reflected in the financial performance of the company, from this point onwards. At the point of the merger, Sam Chisholm was the Chief Executive Officer and he remained in place, until 1997. He then handed over to Mark Booth; and, in 1999, Tony Ball went on to lead Sky during the period within which Sky Television was introduced. It was during this period that the company returned to profit and subscriber members rose at a substantial rate. As is the case with many large companies, Sky was not without its difficulties within the boardroom, particularly when James Murdoch was appointed, in 2003, as there were allegations of internal dealings from the shareholders and a general feeling of discontent, during this period. These difficulties rumbled on and in 2007 Rupert Murdoch, the father of James Murdoch, stepped down from his role as non-executive chairman, but was then replaced by his son who stepped down from the position of CEO, being replaced by Jeremy Darroch. During 2010, a takeover bid was made by News Corp where it attempted to gain control of the 61% of shares that it did not own, but were owned by other shareholders. The price offered was 700 pence per share; the shareholders rejected this offer, stating that they believed an offer of in excess of 800 pence per share would be necessary to make the deal appropriately valuable for the shareholders. It should be noted that, were this takeover to continue, it would be necessary to gain permission from both the European Commission and the Office of Fair Trading, due to anti-competitive dangers of having such a large player in one industry. Over the last 10 years, the profit within Sky has gone up and down with a particularly bad period being experienced during 2000 to 2002. Sky suffered a further drop in profit, in 2008, although this was largely attributed to the general financial crisis and individual inability to pay for what was perceived to be a luxury product. These difficulties and corporate movements are likely to have a direct impact on the perceptions of investors and are therefore relevant to the way in which management boards deal with dividend payouts. Maintaining confidence in the company is critically important and when there are period of difficulties, such as those experienced in 2008, the decisions relating to issues such as dividend become even more critical for the management board, which is likely to pay particular attention to the messages that it is sending out through its dividend decisions. Based on this, when the dividend payments are being considered and the policies looked at, it is important to bear in mind that there are underlying commercial issues that could have a direct bearing on the choices being made and the impact that these choices have on the company. Sky Dividend Approach Despite the variable performance of Sky (BSkyB, 2010), it has maintained a growth policy when it comes to dividends. This is indicated by the fact that, when looking at the discussion on dividends, during the last five years reports, there is an emphasis placed on management confidence and the decision to offer strong dividends, even when the profit levels are weak. Appendix 1 contains the earnings per share calculations, as well as the dividend per share calculations. Earnings per share reflect the amount of profit that can be attributed to each share. For example, in 2010, the calculation reflected profits before tax of 878 million divided by 1743 million shares, resulting in earnings per share of 50.4 pence. This earnings per share figure is the highest seen, in the last five years, with a figure in 2006 being 30.2 pence, dropping to a negative figure in 2008, before recovering, in 2009. Despite this dramatic fluctuation in the earnings per share, the company has maintained a consistent dividend policy because it had confidence in the strength of its position in the market. This consistent growth and confidence can be seen when looking at the dividend per share which is a reflection of the amount of equity dividends paid out per share. As would be expected, this is the highest in 2010; however, even in 2008, where the profit levels were negative, the dividend per share still increased on the 2007 figure. In fact, in every year of the last five y ears, the dividend per share figure has grown from the original figure of 12.2 pence per share, in 2006 to the current 19.4 pence per share. Essentially, these dividend per share figures show that the company has smoothed the negative impact of the downturn, in 2008. Appendix 2 shows the dividend cover and dividend yield within the company, in the last five years. Dividend cover effectively shows how many times the profit could have paid the dividends actually paid. This is a measure of the companys ability to pay its dividends and is a reflection of how realistic the dividend payments are. Interestingly, the coverage rate in 2010 is very similar to that in 2006, at 2.6 times and 2.5 times, respectively. This suggests that the financial health of the company, in terms of the dividend promised, has remained relatively consistent, over the five years. However, as indicated earlier, there was a substantial drop in 2008 and this is reflected in the fact that the coverage ratio shows that the profits did not cover the dividend payments, during this period. Although it recovered slightly, in 2009, with the coverage of 1.2 times, it was not until 2010 that recovery was seen on the ratio returned to 2.6. Again, this would be expected, given the fact that the dividend payment increased year-on-year, despite a substantial dip in profits, during 2008. It has, however, shown by the confidence displayed by the management team, in 2008, that recovery was imminent and this confidence was correctly placed with those investors that have stayed with the company for the previous five year s being rewarded by a higher dividend payment and higher share prices that they can now obtain for their shares. Finally, we shall now look at the dividend yield, i.e. the return an investor obtains on the capital, which involves taking the dividend per share and dividing it by the share price. Many investors see this as the key figure as it indicates the financial return that they are receiving on each share and this can be used in comparison with alternative investment that may be available to the investor, for example bank accounts. In this case, the dividend yield has fluctuated, in the last five years, reaching a high point in 2009, before dropping in 2010. It is not entirely unexpected, given the fact that, in 2009, the share prices were reasonably low after the poor performance of 2008 and the lack of general investor confidence and desirability of the shares. Despite this low share price that was in existence, in 2009, the dividends remained relatively high and therefore the return was naturally higher. As confidence increased in the shares, the share price would naturally rise, as there was a greater demand for shares in Sky and this will have the impact of reducing the dividend yield, as the dividends do not increase at the same rate. It should be noted, however, that the dividend yield is based on the share price in that given year and it is possible that investors who had purchased the shares, at an earlier date, when the prices were either higher or lower will find that there individual return is diffe rent. This supports the notion that those investors that have stayed with the company for the difficult period of 2008 and 2009 or alternatively those that chose to purchase shares during the troubled period will be gaining an increasing dividend yield, now the company is recovering. The approach taken by Sky will be considered in the context of wider dividend policy theories, in the following section. Dividend Policy Underlying Theories Given the importance of dividends to the investors in the companies, it is unsurprising that there is a range of different theories underlying the ways in which companies deal with the dividend policy. From the previous analysis, it can be seen that Sky has opted to maintain a policy of dividend growth, regardless of underlying profit levels, in order to maintain confidence in the company and, in this case, confidence has been well-placed due to the fact that there was a substantial recovery, in 2010, despite the weak performance, in 2008. However, alternative theories exist that could have been used in order to determine the appropriate dividend policy for Sky, during the previous five-year period. One theory which is often subscribed to is that of the residual policy. In accordance with this theory, a company will only pay dividends when it has residual earnings in place, for example, where it has taken advantage of all possible internal investment approaches. The argument in favour of this type of approach is that the shareholders will feel that the company is undertaking all possible action, in order to promote its long-term growth. By paying dividends when the company simply does not have the residual earnings to do so, there is an argument that the company is not putting itself in a good position for long-term growth. A secondary benefit from following this type of approach is that it refocuses the management team on ensuring that investment is undertaken and dividend policy becomes almost secondary. Furthermore, it reduces the chances of having to raise further equity by issuing new shares because any investment has been funded from the internal earnings; this can also ha ve a benefit to shareholders, as their own shareholding will not be diluted. This is not an approach that has been taken by Sky as, had it followed this type of approach, no dividend would have been paid, in 2008. Instead, the company prioritised a dividend growth theory and did not make investments a priority (Gordon, 1963). Another theory which has been developed by Modigliani and Miller (MM), back in the 1960s, is that which argued that dividend policy was irrelevant when all factors were pulled together (Baker, 2009). They argued that the way in which a firm divides its earnings pot between paying out to shareholders and retaining the funds, internally is, in essence, irrelevant in the long term. When developing the theory, MM relied on a range of assumptions including the notion that the way in which the company invests in growth is independent of its dividend decisions, and also that the company operates within a perfect capital market. For example, there are no transaction costs and no taxes and all investors have exactly the same information, at the same time. In theory, they argue that investors will act in a way that produces the correct level of dividend by either buying or selling shares, depending on how the company is performing. For example, if the company is not producing the level of divi dend that an investor requires, then it will simply purchase more shares to get more dividends and vice versa. This suggests that the dividend policy of Skys management team would be largely irrelevant, as investors would simply shift, in order to obtain the returns that suit their own needs. John Lintner (1962) also developed a dividend theory, namely the bird in the hand theory. The theory suggested that investors generally prefer to receive regular dividend payments, rather than reinvesting capital growth, in the future. This suggests that investors, on the whole, are risk-averse and prefer to receive dividend, in the current year, rather than potential growth in 5 to 10 years time. To a certain extent, Sky has followed this approach, because it recognises that providing a return to investors, on a year by year basis, is seen as preferable to promising long-term investment. Clearly, however, this type of theory will vary, depending on the needs of the individual investor. Some investors will be investing in shares with the view to long-term growth and therefore are less likely to pay attention to the dividend returns, on a year by year basis, (Frankfurter and Wood, 2002). Finally, and arguably the most influential theory, when it comes to the approach taken by Sky is that of the dividend signalling theory. It is argued that, contrary to the dividend irrelevant theory, the dividend value actually does have a dramatic impact on the share price, due to the fact that the choice of dividend policy gives a signalling effect as to how well the management team thinks the company will perform, in the future (Brittain, 1966). A change in the dividend payment, either upwards or downwards, has been argued to offer a signal to shareholders and investors, in terms of what the likely future earnings will be. For example, if the management team is positive about the future of the company as a whole and that they may maintain a high dividend. When dividend payment is reduced, this can often negative signal to the market and is therefore something that a company will often avoid, even where profit levels are low, as was seen in the case of Sky, in 2008. Summary and Conclusion By analysing the background commercial position of Sky, in the last five years, its financial performance in relation to dividends and also wider dividend policy theories, it is clear to see that Sky is following a dividend signalling approach, as well as the dividend growth theory, by increasing its dividend, year-on-year, regardless of the underlying position of the company. There are several concerns associated with this approach. Firstly, where dividends are being paid out at a high level in years where the income is simply not there to sustain this level, it is possible that the company is missing out on investment opportunities and therefore long-term growth may not be as rapid as it could be. Clearly, this depends on the underlying ethos of the company and whether or not investment is essential to sustain growth or whether it prefers to follow the bird in hand theory, which suggests that shareholders prefer to have immediate returns. Furthermore, paying out high levels of divi dend, even when there is no profit at all, is only sustainable for a certain period of time. Whilst, in this case, Sky returned to profit rapidly in 2009 and 2010 and therefore paying dividends in 2008 did not produce long-term financial difficulties for the company, had this not occurred, it is possible that the company would, ultimately, have suffered and run out of money to pay dividends. This may have required it to take out additional long-term loans, or to issue equity, which would eventually have had the impact of increasing costs and making the position within the company even more difficult to return to profit. In this case, however, the management team at Sky correctly assessed that the company was in a strong position and likely to grow, in the coming years and signalled as much to the shareholders through maintaining a high level of dividend. This, in turn, meant that the share prices increased and this has been reflected in the dividend yield dropping slightly, in 2010. Overall, Sky has followed a growth and signalling theory, which has resulted in positive trends of the company, but nonetheless, caution should be used when applying this type of approach, as it relies on recovery, in order to be sustainable.

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MA in Virgin Airlines

Question: Discuss about theMA in Virgin Airlines. Answer: Introduction In terms of sales departments, the management has emphasized upon disseminating the different roles of management reporting into several sets of job profiles. These posts comprises of Accounts Managers, Operational Executives and sales analysts. The key revenue indicators comes from passenger ticket sales, this is to be followed by the revenues generated through the freighting activities coupled with providing logistical solutions. Instead of machine hours as used in manufacturing and production operations, the airline uses Block Hour (BH). A synonym for Aircraft Hour, the BH is determined by the duration that a particular flight takes between moving out of departure gate until entering the arrival gate (Belobaba, Odoni and Barnhart 2015). The productivity of airlines is computed using the BH unit; Virgin too utilizes these unitary measures in order to gauge the degree of efficiency of its operating activities. The primary fleet of airbus operated by the company comprises of Boeing 7 37-400 and 737-800 (Virgin Australia 2016). The airline sets a particular benchmark for utilization of its aircraft carriers based upon the industry standards and thereby computes the degree of variance based upon the frequency of its flight schedules. In terms of measuring the overall unit costs of operations, the cost per unit of available seat mile (CASM) is utilized by the Virgin Airline likewise other airline companies. The basic methodology for computing CASM is through determination of aggregate operating costs followed by computing the quantum of available seat miles and then dividing the former with the latter (Web.mit.edu 2016). The actual CASM is derived and analyzed periodically; mostly on a quarterly basis in order undertake comparison with the industry standards. The benchmarking of the costs as against Virgin Airlines domestic and international competitors assists in evaluating the effectiveness of cost management operations currently implemented by the company. Revenue Passenger Miles (RPM) is the measurement unit of computing the degree of passenger traffic managed by the airline in the last quarter, half year or annual period. The RPM is a indicator of the salability of the airline due to the fact that computation of RPM entails determining the number of airline seats sold by the company. A high RPM tends to indicate the fact that the company has succeeded towards retaining its existing consumer base along with attracting newer sets of flyers (iata.org 2016). The analysts undertaking the evaluation of sales activities tends to use RPM as a parameter to make recommendations regarding current management policies concerning the sales activities. The load factor is another costing unit utilized in order to assist in determining the quantum of consumption of airline output. The load factor comprises of using the RPM as a percentage of Available Seat Miles (ASM). Moreover, the computations as regards to load factor is done by the company on a w eek by week basis in accordance with the industry norms which is then aggregated at the end of a particular quarter. The revenue generated by the company through carriage activities pertaining to its passengers are categorized as passenger revenue (PR). Moreover, they are appropriated on the basis of schedule flight operations thereby attributing the costs in accordance to each activity. The passenger revenue is a representation of a division among the sources of revenue generation by the airline. The generated revenue by the airline is segregated amongst the revenue earned from passengers and those earned purely from logistical activities. Another form of measurement of revenue relates to the fact that the total revenue is to be computed with regards to ASM in order to facilitate evaluation of revenue generated per ASM. Airline industry in general has diverse sets of costs comprising of regulatory expenses, operating expenses, services costs and costs pertaining to security, technological up gradation expenditures among others. Virgin Airlines has numerous expenses that are variable in nature and cost of which tends to vary upon several relevant factors. Primary among them being the travel routes in which the airline operates. Moreover, the purchasing mechanism for aircraft carriers, maintenance costs, staff salaries, aviation fuels costs among others. Further, the maintenance costs relating to aircrafts vary in quantum. This is owing to the fact that the specification, fuselage and efficiency along with the engineering involved in manufacturing the aircrafts vary from aircraft to aircraft. The airlines follow ABC method of costing in order to compute aircraft maintenance costs due to the inherent nature of cost allocation facilitated by ABC costing. The ABC method of costing has been developed with an intention towards providing a enhanced set of platform for cost ascertainment than what was provided by Traditional Cost Accounting (TCA). The benefits as regards to ABC Costing arise from the fact that the product cost behavior can be adequately evaluated by companies implementing the method (Drury 2013). In terms of Virgin Airlines, the usually distorted sets of cost computations resulting from implementation of TCA can be reduced substantially by applying ABC. In case of TCA, the allocation of overhead costs has been facilitated through accumulation of costs from each department. This is followed by allocating them to the services or products (Levant and Zimnovitch 2013). On the other hand, ABC costing tends to undertake cost ascertainment and allocation based upon different sets of activities (Kaplan and Anderson 2013). Thereby, the allocating processes under ABC are more transparent and rational in nature for airline companies like Virgin. Airline industry in general incurs heavy maintenance costs that can be segregated into both direct and indirect costs. Every set of Airline Company, including Virgin Airlines, tends to have their activities distributed amongst aircraft maintenance, cabin and crew maintenance, structure maintenance coupled with upkeep of relevant tools. The aircraft maintenance activities comprise of preflight checking and functioning, inspection of aircraft decks, performing onboard operation checks along with cleaning of airbuses. Further, in terms of cabin maintenance, the activities entails maintaining the rugs, seats and carpets inside the flights coupled with installation and upkeep of emergency medical aids. The structure maintenance pertaining to airbuses comprises of repairing, oiling and painting, overhauling and wielding activities. The direct costs in relation to airline operations includes engine maintenance costs, direct labor costs as in salaries of cockpit crews and aeronautical engineers directly involved in operating in the predetermined routes. Moreover the leasing, rents relating to airbus maintenance, both heavy and base aircraft maintenance consumables falls under direct costs. The primary form of overhead costs includes regulatory fees to be paid to aviation authorities, depreciations as regards to airbuses and the rent relating to aircraft hangars. The majority of MA functions are undertaken by the Finance department whose functions includes initiating the financial analysis, financial forecasting, preparation of internal audit report, management of expansionary and up-gradation projects (Virgin Australia 2016). The relevant job roles pertaining to the finance department comprises of Auditor, Project Managers, Business Analysts and Accountants along with specialization in IT architecture and softwar e. The major forms of reports generated by airlines in order to facilitate managerial decision making comprises of preparation Flight Load on a daily basis. The flight load pertaining to a particular period comprises of flight numbers, the operating flight routes, details regarding the departure and arrival time. Further, such report also takes into account the volume of passenger booking the flights coupled with no show. The next line of reports tends to provide details regarding BH, RPM, ASM and PR in order to facilitate performance evaluation of activities undertaken by the company. Moreover, preparation of budget forecasting under the supervision of Finance Department tends to assist in mitigating the prevalent degree of cost overruns. References: Belobaba, P., Odoni, A. and Barnhart, C., 2015.The global airline industry. John Wiley Sons. Borenstein, S. and Rose, N.L., 2014. How airline markets work or do they? Regulatory reform in the airline industry. InEconomic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?(pp. 63-135). University of Chicago Press DRURY, C.M., 2013.Management and cost accounting. Springer. Hill, G., 2016. Cost management.MHD Supply Chain Solutions,46(4), p.16 Joseph, J. and Vetrivel, M.A., 2013. Impact of target costing and activity based costing on improving the profitability of spinning mills in coimbatore-empirical study on spinning mills.Journal of Contemporary Research in Management,7(2). Kaplan, R. and Anderson, S.R., 2013.Time-driven activity-based costing: a simpler and more powerful path to higher profits. Harvard business press. Kaplan, R. and Anderson, S.R., 2013.Time-driven activity-based costing: a simpler and more powerful path to higher profits. Harvard business press. Levant, Y. and Zimnovitch, H., 2013. Contemporary evolutions in costing methods: Understanding these trends through the use of equivalence methods in France.Accounting History,18(1), pp.51-75. Raeesi, R. and Amini, A., 2013. Developing a Grey Activity Based Costing (G-abc)Method to Capture the Inherent Uncertainity in Identifying Cost Drivers Consumption Rates. Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal,17(2), p.41. Virgin Australia. (2016). Department Profiles | Virgin Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/about-us/careers/department-profiles/ [Accessed 18 Oct. 2016]. Web.mit.edu. (2016). Airline Data Project. [online] Available at: https://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/Res_Glossary.html [Accessed 18 Oct. 2016]. www.iata.org, (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/passenger-analysis-jul-2016.pdf [Accessed 18 Oct. 2016].

Assess the Most Important Constitutional free essay sample

New Labour came into power on May 1st 1997 and pledged to undertake the most radical shift in constitutional arrangements which would reform British constitution. Majority agree that this was a momentous period of constitutional change, arguably the most important period of constitutional change in Britain since the introduction of universal suffrage. However others think that it was too radical, too unplanned and too unfinished. By the end of its first term (1997-2001), the Balir government had enacted a substantial reform programme. One reform introudced after 1997 was devolution. The centrepiece of Labour’s programme of constitutional reform was undoubtedly this. Referendums had been held in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland regading whether they should have their own Parliaments and devolved government. Devolution will almost certainly have an impact on the wishes of the people who live there to see complete independence for their country. Once devolution had been granted, complete independence would see an opportunity to point out how good that country is at self-government. It would also lead a renewed push for independence it is better for Scotland and Wales as they get to run a minority themselves without so much interference by our incompetent government. In Scotland’s first year it passed eight bills into acts and eleven bills were going through the parliamentary process. Therefore, in 12 months 19 issues relating to Scotland were either finalised or going through the process of being accepted or not. On average, the House of Commons passed one or two acts a year that directly related to Scotland. In this sense, the Scottish Parliament has been very successful as they managed to set things straight. One of the major arguments against devolution is that it will be the start of the break-up of the United Kingdom; that from small beginnings (if devolution can be seen as ‘small’) the ultimate fate of this country will be regional authorities with more devolved power in the counties – this may appeal to those who want more authority in counties like Cornwall, but many see this as the start of the break up of the United Kingdom with a massive loss of central authority. Another reason as to why it can be seen as unsuccessful is that for the Scottish, they are not allowed to interfere with English laws apart from those that concern them, for example agriculture and education. This can be seen as unfair because the British can make amendments to Scottish laws, this may lead to another reason why the Scottish should have their independence. Overall it can be seen as a success for parts of England as they were entitled to independence. In a 1997 poll, people in Scotland were asked whether they felt they were Scottish or British. They answered as followed that 63% indicated that they felt that they were Scottish or more Scottish than British. This would fit in with the Marshall model – those who felt that they were Scots would wish for their own Parliament. So it accomplished the wishes of the Scots making it a success for the Scottish population. Another reform introduced after 1997 was the Human Rights Act (1998). The Human Rights Act was implemented in 2000 but was the basic rights that each human being is entitled to, for example, fundamental rights, procedural rights and qualified rights. Some people may find this unnecessary as it is common sense to know what rights you are entitled to and that having it printed as an act could debatably have been a waste of time and the act could have just been uncodified. On the other hand people can say that the Human Rights act was very successful as it made adamant about what our rights are as humans. It helped to promote diversity as it outlined equal opportunities, regardless of colour. It promoted togetherness, hence there would be equity and equality so it introduced diversity means peace and no prejudice / discrimination or violent acts against those with different colour. It also helped vulnerable people who needed protection; it stopped them from being exploited as they knew what rights they were entitled to. The Human Rights Act of 1998 overall was a success due to the fact that it finally guaranteed basic human right for the British people and led to a protection and recognition of individuals rights. New Labour introduced another reform in 1999 which was A Freedom of Information Act. This act was an Act of Parliament that creates a public right to access to information held by public authorities. This can be seen as a positive aspect of the constitutional change as it prevents the government from being too secretive. The revelations about MPs expenses would not have been available to the Daily Telegraph had the parliamentary authorities not been preparing a document for FOI release; and there have been many other disclosures that have served to highlight stories many would wish to hide – such as Princes Charless black spider memos to government ministers. December 1997 the government issued a White Paper entitled ‘Your Right to Know’ which stated that ‘unnecessary secrecy in government leads to arrogance and defective decision- making’. This shows that it was successful because the public can see what is happening with the people who are meant to be representing their constitutions. For some, they would argue the fact that passing the act wasn’t a success as it is seen to be a waste of time and money, with requesters complaining that important information is all too often redacted. Or that it is withheld by authorities who are keenly aware of the news value of the material they hold. They could argue that sometimes information is simply lost for three or even four years in a slow appeals process as the information commissioners office is swamped with cases. From this a conclusion can be drawn that it wasn’t a success due to the wastage of money and time when things are purposely delayed. Overall it can be said that the passing of this act has been a success due to the fact that information can be revealed however something’s take time to come out within the process. Reform of the House of Lords had long been on Labour Party agendas and had plagued British politics for a hundred years, with relatively progress achieved until recently. The problem had been that historically it has been a largely hereditary and non-democratic Chamber. New Labour decided to take power away from those who were born into it and govern it to people who have earned it. This would have been good in the public eye as it would indicate that exceptional people who have been selected will serve in the House of Lords. However, the reform was left unfinished and the intention was that the initial changes would only be miniscule. The Labour Government’s proposal for a partly appointed, partly selected chamber was widely ‘rubbished’ and they handed the issue over to a committee of both houses. But they failed to come up with an acceptable alternative and the issue remains unresolved. So, the reform was mainly unsuccessful due to that it was incomplete†¦If many British people can accept that to be a royal you have to either marry or be born into it then it should have been understandable for Lords to be born into Lordship. Nevertheless, it was fair to stop hereditary lords. In conclusion as to what was the most important constitutional change introduced in UK since 1997; devolution was by far the most influential, radical and valued reform. It changed how the country is governed and it definitely had a massive impact upon the Scottish population. It signaled that the Scottish are not English and that they now have their own identity. Many people believe that the change was overdue and much needed. Devolution has given more say to the regions and made them happier with their places in the UK.