Overview
Adam is a Clerk in the Centre of Excellence for Procedural Practice, based in the Journal Office of the House of Commons. He is Course Director for the House of Commons Postgraduate Certificate on Advising MPs in Parliamentary Procedure - the UK Parliament's flagship procedural qualification, accredited by City University. He is also the Secretary to the History of Parliament Trust. From November 2019 until May 2022, Adam was Clerk of the Welsh Affairs Committee in the House of Commons. Previous roles in the House of Commons have included being Second Clerk of the Defence Committee, Secretary to the UK’s Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and Committee Specialist (Constitutional Affairs) for the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. An Honorary Research Fellow since 2015, Adam has published widely on British constitutional history and aspects of devolution in the United Kingdom, including previously on the party system in Scotland and Wales. His work in the House of Commons has included experience of drafting reports and leading inquiries on English Votes for English Laws, amending the powers of the House of Lords and on the EU Referendum.
Biography
Adam is a Clerk in the Centre of Excellence for Procedural Practice, based in the Journal Office of the House of Commons. He is Course Director for the House of Commons Postgraduate Certificate in Advising MPs 0n Parliamentary Procedure - the UK Parliament's flagship procedural qualification, accredited by City University. He is also the Secretary to the History of Parliament Trust. From November 2019 until May 2022, Adam was Clerk of the Welsh Affairs Committee. Adam was previously the Second Clerk on the House of Commons Defence Committee and Secretary to the UK’s Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He also previously worked as the Constitutional Affairs Specialist for the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. In this role, he drafted the Committee’s reports on
- English Votes for English Laws,
- Inter-Institutional Relations in the UK,
- The Strathclyde Review: Secondary Legislation and the Primacy of the House of Commons
- Lessons Learned from the EU Referendum.
Prior to the referendum, Adam also managed the Committee's inquiry into the proposed disapplication of s.125 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA) 2000 (a section that provides for a 'purdah' period during referendum campaigns) from the then European Union Referendum Bill. The Committee's inquiry played a significant role in s.125 being re-applied and put in place for the referendum campaign.
Adam has a longstanding relationship with the Wales Governance Centre and Cardiff University. He first joined the Wales Governance Centre as a PhD candidate in 2012 and completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Cardiff University. His PhD explored the Speaker’s Conference on Devolution, 1919-1920 – one of only two occasions where the UK’s territorial governance was considered 'in the round' by policymakers at Westminster. Adam’s academic work has focused on UK constitutional history and devolution in the UK. He has previously also conducted research on the Liberal Democrats as a federal party in the UK’s party system, post-devolution. Adam has been an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University since 2015.
Honours and awards
- President's Research Scholarship (Cardiff University): full PhD scholarship, 2012-2015
- James Pantefedwyn Foundation Scholarship: fees and partial stipend grant for Masters study, 2011-2012
- John Cross Prize (Cardiff University): Awarded for highest average performance for final year Politics undergraduate, 2011
- Charles Morgan Prize (Cardiff University): Awarded for best first year undergraduate student performance in Welsh history, 2009
Publications
2022
- Evans, A. 2022. The House of Commons and devolution. Public Law 2022(Oct), pp. 616-633.
- Evans, A. 2022. Parliamentary representation at Westminster and devolution: from the "in and out" to EVEL. Public Law 2022(Jan), pp. 9-18.
2021
- Evans, A. 2021. “There will be no shortage of Cabinet ministers taking part in the Scottish referendum campaign. The same is not true in Wales”: New Labour, old struggles, and the advent of Welsh Devolution. Parliamentary History
- Evans, A. 2021. “This Welsh Problem”: Churchill and the creation of a Minister for Welsh Affairs. Finest hour : the journal of Winston Churchill(193), pp. 35-39.
- Evans, A. 2021. Northern Ireland, 2017-2020: an experiment in indirect rule. Public Law 2021(July), pp. 471-480.
- Evans, A. 2021. ‘Far reaching and perhaps destructive’? The 1974–79 Labour Government, devolution and the emergence, and failure, of the Scotland and Wales Bill. Parliaments, Estates and Representation 41(1), pp. 42-61. (10.1080/02606755.2021.1894543)
2020
- Evans, A. 2020. ‘The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men’? Proposals, planning, defeat, and legacy, of devolution in the 1970s. Parliamentary History 39(3), pp. 462-480. (10.1111/1750-0206.12524)
- Evans, A. 2020. Scotland at Westminster. In: Keating, M. ed. The Oxford Handbook of Scottish Politics. Oxford Handbooks Oxford University Press, pp. 584-601., (10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198825098.013.30)
- Evans, A. 2020. A Parliamentary Entente Cordiale? The House of Commons Defence Committee's Joint Inquiry with the Assemblée Nationale's Standing Committee on National Defence and the Armed Forces. Political Quarterly 91(1), pp. 228-234. (10.1111/1467-923X.12793)
- Evans, A. 2020. A tale as old as (devolved) time? Sewel, Stormont and the Legislative Consent Convention. Political Quarterly 91(1), pp. 165-172. (10.1111/1467-923X.12795)
2019
- Torrance, D. and Evans, A. 2019. The Territorial Select Committees, 40 years on. Parliamentary Affairs 72(4), pp. 860-878. (10.1093/pa/gsz032)
- Evans, A. 2019. Inter-parliamentary relations in the United Kingdom: devolution’s undiscovered country?. Parliaments, Estates and Representation 39(1), pp. 98-112. (10.1080/02606755.2018.1487648)
2018
- Evans, A. B. 2018. Devolution and parliamentary representation: the case of the Scotland and Wales Bill, 1976–7. Parliamentary History 37(2), pp. 274-292. (10.1111/1750-0206.12365)
- Evans, A. 2018. Planning for Brexit: the case of the 1975 Referendum. Political Quarterly 89(1), pp. 127-133. (10.1111/1467-923X.12412)
2016
- Evans, A. 2016. ‘Too old a country … too long accustomed to regard her life as one and indivisible’: England and the Speaker’s Conference on Devolution. Contemporary British History 31(3), pp. 366-383. (10.1080/13619462.2016.1245620)
- Evans, A. B. 2016. A lingering diminuendo? The conference on devolution,1919–20. Parliamentary History 35(3), pp. 315-335. (10.1111/1750-0206.12238)
- Evans, A. B. 2016. Wales as nation or region? The Conference on Devolution's Judiciary sub-committee, 1919–20. Welsh History Review 28(1), pp. 146-173. (10.16922/whr.28.1.6)
2015
- Evans, A. B. 2015. The squeezed middle? The Liberal Democrats in Wales and Scotland: A post-coalition reassessment. Scottish Affairs 24(2), pp. 163-186. (10.3366/scot.2015.0065)
- Evans, A. 2015. An interlude of agreement? A reassessment of the Conference on Devolution's ‘consensus’ on powers. Contemporary British History 29(4), pp. 421-440. (10.1080/13619462.2015.1015421)
- Evans, A. B. 2015. Back to the future? Warnings from history for a future UK constitutional convention. Political Quarterly 86(1), pp. 24-32. (10.1111/1467-923X.12135)
- Evans, A. B. 2015. A “lingering diminuendo”? The Conference on Devolution 1919-1920. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
2014
- Evans, A. 2014. Federalists in name only? Reassessing the federal credentials of the Liberal Democrats: An English case study. British Politics 9, pp. 346-358. (10.1057/bp.2014.5)
- Evans, A. B. 2014. Analogue in a digital age? Welsh Labour's organisation in post-devolved Wales, 1999-2009. Llafur: the Journal of Welsh People’s History, pp. 128-145.
2013
- Evans, A. B. 2013. Research note: Oh brother, where art thou? The position of the Scottish and Welsh Liberal Democrats within the Federal Liberal Democrats. Contemporary Wales 26(1), pp. 242-255.
Teaching
Adam has been a regular contributor to the LLM Constitutionalism and Governance module, as well as leading lectures on Parliament and Devolution and Parliament and the Legislative Process for the undergraduate Parliamentary Studies module.