To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the United Kingdom will join the Council of Europe's European Commission for Democracy through Law, the Venice Commission. [83556]

HMG have given thorough consideration to the merits of the United Kingdom becoming a member of the Venice Commission and have decided to do so with immediate effect.The Commission is a consultative body of independent experts whose principal work is in advising the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe on constitutional reform. It provided legal advice to the international negotiators in the run-up to and during the Kosovar negotiations in France in February and March this year. The Commission has been a major contributor to electoral and constitutional reform in Albania and Croatia, and is assisting the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina on constitutional reform and the revision of the Parliamentary Electoral Law.