2.1 Structure and role of HoC and HoL

Question 1

The UK has a (…) legislature

Answer 1

bicameral

Question 2

3

Describe the membership of the House of Commons

Answer 2

• Frontbenchers - MPs who holds ministerial role + party whips in government and those who shadow them in opposition (‘payroll’ vote)
• Backbencher - MPs without an officia role in government or opposition
• Speaker/deputy speakers - politically-neutral MPs who preside over debates in House of Commons

Sometimes PPS included as frontbench

Question 3

3

List the membership of the House of Lords

Description on other cards

Answer 3

• Life peers
• Heriditary peers
• Lords spirtual

Question 4

6

Describe life peers

Answer 4

• Created by Life Peerages Act 1958
• Appointed by monarch after proposals by PM acting on advice of Appointments Commission
• By convention, Leader of Opp and other party leaders can propose a certain number
• Usually experts in their field
• May be crossbenchers or party members
• e.g. Simon Murray, David Cameron

Question 5

5

Describe hereditary peers

Answer 5

• 92 peers who hold position from inheriting it from their parent
• when vacancy occurs in 90/92 seats, fellow hereditary peers vote to replace them in by-election with other hereditary peers who wish to stand
• Holder of ‘Earl Marshal’ and ‘Lord Great Chamberlain’ have automatic right so sit
• e.g. Oliver Eden
• no female heriditary peers currently

Question 6

2

Describe the Lords Spiritual

Answer 6

• 26 bishops and archbishops of Church of England
• e.g. Justin Welby

Question 7

6

List the main functions of Parliament

Answer 7

• Legislative function
• Debate
• Scrutiny
• Representation
• Legitimation - act on behalf of public to give consent to laws
• Providing ministers

Question 8

4

List the factors of representative function for the House of Commons

Answer 8

• Party representation
• Constituency representation
• Functional representation (e.g. LGBT)
• Pressure group representation

Question 9

2 (yes) + 4 (no)

Describe the extent to which the House of Commons fulfills party representation

Answer 9

Yes

• Essentially all MPs elected by representing political party at election
• Strong whip system e.g. Boris Johnson removed whips from 21 MPs

No

• MPs may cross benches e.g. Christian Wakefield, Dan Poulter
• Whip system increasingly breaking down
• Dominance of government means party-line votes lack scrutiny e.g. Liz Truss fracking vote
• FPTP limits minor party representation

Question 10

2 (yes) + 2 (no)

Describe the extent to which the House of Commons fulfills constituency representation

Answer 10

Yes

• All MPs elected as representatives of their constituency
• many MPs act as ‘delegates’ e.g. Nicky Morgan voted against legalising gay marriage in 2013 claiming that she had recieved more letters from constituents to oppose it than support it

No

• MPs often vote in line with parties
• Can support views opposed to that of constituency e.g. Theresa May supported brexit whislt Maidenhead opposed it

Question 11

3 (yes) + 2 (no)

Describe the extent to which the House of Commons fulfills functional representation

Answer 11

Yes

• specific select committees i.e. Women and Equalities Committee
• 2019 elec produced most representative HoC (34% female, 10% BAME, 7% LGBT)
• These issues are sufficiently debated/represented - HoC voted for same-sex marriage in 2013 despite being almost entirely straight in membership

No

• still unrepresentative of population (e.g. 66% male)
• greater divides in class (80% MPs have professional/business background - so WC under-represented)

Question 12

2 (yes) + 2 (no)

Describe the extent to which the House of Commons fulfills pressure group representation

Answer 12

Yes

• MPs may have link to think tank, charity, etc - represent views + issues under-represented in political debate
• e.g. Neil O’Brien MP sits on Onward advisory board

No

• lobbying scandals related to MPs e.g. Owen Paterson
• pressure groups hold no legitimacy

Question 13

11

List ways in which the House of Commons can scrutinise the government

Answer 13

• PMQs and Ministerial Question Time
• Select Committees
• Legislative process
• Opposition days
• Humble address
• backbench business committee
• petitions committee
• EDMs
• Emergency debates
• Adjournment debates
• Urgent questions

Question 14

3

Describe humble address

Answer 14

• Request from House of Commons for release of documents named in the address
• e.g. in 2017 labour used humble address to get Government to release its Brexit impact assessments
• Difficult to achieve given government majority in HoC

Question 15

3

Describe House of Lords in the legislative function

Answer 15

• Cannot veto - only delay for one year
• revising chamber - amendments given important consideration given expertise of members
• crossbenchers not influenced by party whip system - assess legislation’s merits and demerits with open mind

Re-do this card

Question 16

3

Give an example of the invokation of the Parliaments Act 1949

Answer 16

• Sexual Offences (amendment) bill 2000 proposed reducing age of consent for homosexual sex from 18 to 16
• Passed HoC, rejected by HoL
• Govt invoked 1949 Parliament Act to give bill royal assent, bypassing HoL

Question 17

2

Give an example of the government responding to the House of Lords

Answer 17

• HoL criticism that the Internal Market Bill (2020) did not sufficiently recognise authority of devolved govts to determine goods and services policy
• led to govt conceding that some regulatory diffferences could be accepted within a ‘common framework’

Question 18

2

Give an example of the government not responding to the House of Lords

Answer 18

• HoC rejected all five of HoL amendments to EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill in 2020
• Included Dubs amendments which would have ensured that unaccompanied child refugees would still be able to join relatives in UK after brexit

Question 19

4

Describe House of Lords select committees

Answer 19

• Committee work highly regarded due to expertise of emembers
• Unlike HoC which monitors departments, HoL committees concentrate on major social/political issues and make recommendations to govt
• Sessional committees
• Special inquiry committees

Question 20

2

Describe sessional committees

Answer 20

• deal with particular issue e.g. environment and climate change
• e.g. Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

Question 21

3

Describe the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

Answer 21

• HoC do not have time to examine secondary legislation
• Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee plays valuable role in scrutinising such statutory instruments
• e.g. in 2022, committee criticised rushed secondary legislation to reduce time when claimaints may limit job search to previous pay level from 3 months to 4 weeks

Question 22

3

Describe House of Lords special enquiry (ad hoc) committees

Answer 22

• investgate specific issue
• set up for specific time period
• e.g. a HoL special enquiry into negative econ/social effects of gambling reported findings and advice in 2020 based on extensive consultation

Question 23

5

Describe secondary legislation

Answer 23

• changes to detail of existing Acts can be delegated to government ministers and civil servants
• done through statutory instruments (SIs) aka Henry VIII clauses
• 2020 - 1618 SIs passed, but only 49 Acts passed
• done for urgency, but can be used to bypass government scrutiny
• Accusations of ‘governing from shadows’

Question 24

4

Describe Joint HoL and HoC committees

Answer 24

• Three are permanent and meet regularly (Human Rights, National Security Strategy, SIs)
• Consult widely and membership reflects accumulated experience of both Houses
• e.g. National Security Strategy committee featured Lord Dannatt (former Blair defence sec) + Tobias Elwood (Chair of Defence select) in 2022
• also established to deal with specific issue e.g. Joint Committee on Draft Online Safety Bill made 127 recommendations in 2021

Question 25

3 - (3) (2) (3)

Describe the argument that the House of Commons effectively fulfill its function

Answer 25

• Representative function
  
  • 2019 elec produced most functionally representative HoC (e.g. 7% LGBT) - represent social groupings in debates/issues
  • range of minor parties represented, especially regional ones i.e. NI parties
  • MPs act as delegates of constituency e.g. Jess Phillips ceasefire vote - exemplifies social contract
• Scrutiny function
  
  • prominence of PMQs places spotlight on executive decisions with detailed questions and answers e.g. Sunak 150k student dependents
  • Wright Reforms enhances independence of Select Committes who regularly consult experts - reports granted weight with 30-40% recommendations being taken uo
• Legislative function
  
  • Core part of legislative process e.g. public bill committees
  • BBBC allows wider backbenchers to set parliamentary agenda and debate issues ignored by executive
  • control of legislative process most evident in Letwin Amendment

Question 26

3 - (3) (2) (3)

Describe the argument that the House of Commons does not effectively fulfill its function

Answer 26

• Representative function
  
  • Functional representation still limited (only 34% are female)
  • FPTP limits minor party representation
  • powerful whip system removes independence of MPs
• Scrutiny function
  
  • PMQs is raucous and known for ‘theatre’ with many questions used to praise the government for electioneering
  • Select committees reports must be unanimous and so avoid contorversy in recommendations - limits ability to properly scrutinise departmental processes and policy
• Legislative function
  
  • Governments increasingly using secondary legislation to bypass Parliament and especially HoC
  • PMBs rarely advance due to little parliamentary time allocated + whip system
  • EDMs remain non-binding - legislative function reduced to virtue-signalling

Question 27

2

Describe a recent government defeat in the House of Lords

Answer 27

• Defeated Sunak plans to dilute river pollution regulations to drive homebuilding in Sept 2023
• 203-156 loss (47 vote margin)

Question 28

2

How many times were the Government defeated in the HoL and HoC in the 2022-23 session?

Answer 28

HoL - 125
HoC - 0

Question 29

3 - (3) (2) (2)

Describe the argument that the House of Lords effectively fulfills its function

Answer 29

• Representative function
  
  • Appointments system enables selection of diverse life peers
  • life peers selected on merit and represent different industries/interest groups e.g. Lord Addington serves as President of BDA
  • especially true for crossbenchers not subject to party whip e.g. Tammi-Grey Thompson
• Scrutiny function
  
  • Lords members are more indepently-minded and thus more willing to challenge the government
  • Expertise leads to a higher quality of debating and forensic questioning of ministers
• Legislative function
  
  • lack of government majority in HoL leads to more regular government defeats e.g. 125 defeats (2022-23)
  • serves as ‘revising chamber’ in ‘ping pong’ - amendments taken more seriously due to expertise

BDA - British Dyslexia Association

Question 30

3 - (2) (3) (2)

Describe the argument that the House of Lords does not effectively fulfill its function

Answer 30

• Representative function
  
  • Though reduced in numbers and influence, heriditary peers exemplify skewed representation towards aristocracy
  • Royal Prerogative of PM to recommend peerages leads to packing of HoL with party members e.g. Cameron appointed 51 LD peers, May/Johnson appointed none
• Scrutiny function
  
  • Ministerial questions not directed towards department unlike HoC
  • scrutiny of bills limited by Salibsury convention and ‘money bills’
  • ability to scrutinise from different expert standpoints limited by poor and irregular attendance by peers e.g. Lebedev
• Legislative function
  
  • HoL can ignore amendments e.g. 5 amendments made on EU Withdrawal Bill
  • No legislative veto - can be overulled by HoC