This year's Bingham lecture will be given by Dr Hannah White, Deputy Director at the Institute of Government. Time pressure is a necessary constraint on aspects of the constitution, but it can also pose a threat to good government, parliamentary accountability and scrutiny. In this lecture Hannah White will consider the impact on the constitution of the time constraints created by the Article 50 process and the COVID-19 pandemic. She will examine the ways in which time pressure shaped the May and Johnson governments’ strategies for giving effect to the 2016 referendum result and how they controlled time in pursuit of their policy objectives. She will discuss the impact on procedures and conventions of the imperative for the government to act swiftly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the opportunities and risks of the precedents set. In concluding she will reflect on the lasting legacy of the time pressure exerted on the constitution during these two exceptional periods and offer some thoughts about how the constitution might be protected against the negative consequences of governing under time constraints.