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Find out how our members make our policies

In the Liberal Democrats, our members decide our policy. Your experience and understanding helps ensure we have the very best policies that matter to people. Liberal Democrat members can vote on all policy at our Party Conferences. No proposal can become Lib Dem policy until Conference has voted for it - and our members can put forward their own proposals. You can get involved through writing policy, joining policy working groups, responding to consultations and attending conference.

How is policy decided?

At Party Conference, debates are held to decide party policy. Every party member who is attending has the right to vote in debates.

Party Conference is held twice a year, normally in March and September. Conference is where party policy is made - the only way a proposal can become policy is if it is voted for at Conference. Policies that affect the whole UK or just England are voted on by the Lib Dem Federal Conference, while our Scottish, Welsh and regional Conferences set policy that only affects their own area. 

At Conference, debates are held to decide policy. For each debate, a motion is put forward in advance. Members can then speak in favour, or against the motion, or on any amendments that have been submitted. At the end of the debate, a vote is held. Any member can speak or vote on the motion. If a motion is passed, it then becomes Lib Dem policy.

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  • You can speak in a debate if you are a member, though if you have only registered for one day of Conference, you are not allowed to speak.

    If you wish to speak you must first submit a speaker's card, available from the Speaker’s Table, from the stewards in the Auditorium or at the Information Desk.

    Before each debate, the chair and aide select which speakers they will call, ensuring that the speakers reflect a balanced range of views.

    There are three key points to remember to maximise your chances of being called:

    1. Submit your card well in advance. The chair and aide meet well in advance to plan the debate and select speakers, sometimes the previous day. Submitting your card early increases your chance of being called.
    2. Fill in your card completely. Fill in the two sections on the back of the card as well as the front. These sections are needed for the chair to balance the debate and to make sure that they don’t call a series of people who’ll make the same point.
    3. Make sure it’s readable. Don't try to cram too many words onto the card, and don’t write illegibly or in green ink. The easier you make it for the chair and aide to read your card, the more likely you will be to be called.

  • Normally around 3-5 minutes - the speaking time limits for each debate are published in the Conference Agenda. 

    There is a lighting system in the main hall to tell you how long you have left when you're speaking - an amber light goes on when you have one minute left, and a red light goes on when your time is up. 

    For normal speeches, you will be speaking on the main stage, but some debates also have shorter, one-minute speeches called 'interventions'. For these, you can speak from a microphone, normally in the middle of the hall floor.

  • All party members who attended conference are entitled to vote in debates. You must be sat in the auditorium when a vote is called in order to cast your vote if attending in person, or via the online portal if attending online.

  • Motions are submitted to the Federal Conference Committee a few weeks before Conference starts. The Committee then decides which motions are going to be debated and publishes them in the Conference Agenda.

    Emergency motions and amendments can be submitted up to a few days before Conference.

  • Any member can write a motion. You will need to get at least 10 party members or your local party to back your motion if you want to submit it to the Federal Conference Committee.

    Regional and state parties, as well as certain party organisations, can also submit motions to Conference. 

    For more information on writing and submitting motions, click here.

  • You can find a list of all recently adopted party policy on the policy index page. 

  • Working groups normally contain about 15-20 party members. In recent years we have been very glad to receive a large number of applications to be on policy working groups; typically between 100 and 200 for each group. In a context therefore where up to 90% of applicants may not end up on the working group, we are understandably looking for people with a strong level of understanding of the policy area concerned, including through lived experience, rather than simply more general support for it.

    Applicants are asked to answer four substantive questions, about their party experience; any experience in the policy field under discussion; their views on some of the key questions; and anything else they would like to say.

    At the start of the working group process, FPC has usually at least two full discussions of the policy area and the group’s remit, and areas of knowledge or experience it would particularly like to see reflected in the working group’s membership. With this guidance in mind, all applications are then read by an FPC sub-group comprising two vice chairs of the committee and three other members of the committee, along with policy unit staff. They review all applications individually and meet together to then recommend a working group to FPC.

    In creating the working group, the central concept is ‘balance’. Balance between different areas of knowledge within the working group’s scope, and between contrasting views on the main areas of difference of view. If leading members of any relevant party AOs have applied, this would normally be reflected in the group’s membership. There is also a very strong emphasis on balance of a range of demographic factors, including gender, age, geography, LGBTI status, ethnicity and socio-economic background. A balance between specialist policy knowledge and lived experience of the area concerned will also be sought.

    Clearly, balancing all these areas into a group of about 15-20 members requires some difficult trade-offs, and the selection of those who are appointed will reflect this rather than be a judgement that an applicant does not have any useful experience or insight to bring this area. Our policy process does also offer a range of other ways for those not part of the group to contribute to the final outcome, through a range of formal and informal consultation mechanisms as well as the final debate at Conference. 

Policy Consultations

As part of the policy-making process, the Federal Policy Committee routinely consults members so that your views can inform the development of new Lib Dem policy.

Policy Working Groups

We develop policy in specialised teams called policy working groups. The following working groups are currently in operation:

Federal Policy Committee

The FPC is responsible for researching and developing policy and overseeing the Federal Party’s policy-making process.

Policy Papers

Below is a list of all the Policy Papers passed at Conference. Where more than one paper outlines policy on the same topic, the most recent supersedes previous papers. You can find a list of all recently adopted party policy on the policy index page.

The Lib Dem Conference hall

Join us at Conference:
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