2.2 The comparative powers of the House of Commons and House of Lords and 2.3 The legislative process

Question 1

Powers: What are the Parliament Acts? When were they enacted & what was Lords like before them?

Answer 1

-The Parliament Acts greatly reduced the powers of Lords.
-Before 1911, Lords had effectively veto legislation indefinitely.
-The 1911 Act put a 2 year limit on how long Lords could delay primary legislation.
-The 1949 Act reduced this to only 1 year.
-Nowadays, they can only revise legislation, not block it. If they do insist on blocking something, Commons can bypass Lords by delaying the vote for one year. This has only been used 4 times.

Question 2

Powers: What is Confidence & Supply?

Answer 2

-This is granted by Commons as support for government.
-Supply refers to ‘the willingness to authorise the necessary taxation & borrowing to allow government to operate’ & confidence refers to ‘Commons’ faith in government to get things done’.
-When a government has a majority, this is a given. When they are a minority gov, they rely on the backing of another party. This occurred in 2017, & May had to pledge an extra £1bn to NI in exchange for DUP backing.

Question 3

Powers: What is Financial Privilege?

Answer 3

-The Parliament Acts have removed Lords’ ability to delay/amend ‘supply’ bills (bills that deal with tax/raising money).
-This is because Lords are not subject to scrutiny from taxpayers, so should not be able to demand it to be raised.
-Any bill that is deemed a ‘money bill’ by the Speaker of Commons, must pass Lords without amendment within a month, or can receive Royal Assent w/o Lords.

Question 4

Powers: What is the Reasonable Time Convention?

Answer 4

-Concerns that Lords might abuse their privilege to delay legislation by up to a year led to the establishment of the RTC.
-This require Lords to consider legislation for a ‘reasonable’ amount of time, and to aim to vote on it by the end of a Parliamentary session.
-This convention, though, is very vague.

Question 5

Powers: What are the main functions of Parliament?

Answer 5

-Legitimation, legislation, scrutiny, representation, debate, and providing government.

Question 6

Legitimation: What are some strengths in Commons?

Answer 6

-MPs are elected by local constituents, and the PM is chosen as they have the largest party. This gives them a mandate.
-Parliamentary bills must have the consent of both Commons & Lords before being enacted, this means it has to go through elected officials to provide legitimacy.
-British Forces cannot join wars without debate & voting in Commons, as became convention after Blair.

Question 7

Legitimation: What are some weaknesses in Commons?

Answer 7

-The fact that the constitution is uncodified means that consulting commons is only a convention- May began the process to exit the EU without consulting Commons.
-Recently, PM have been provided without a general election (Truss & Sunak), so it could be suggested that they lack the mandate necessary to run the country.
-Details of legislation are refined & updated without consultation of Commons, like the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971.

Question 8

Legitimation: How effective are Lords at legitimation?

Answer 8

-Lords are quite literally unable to provide legitimacy, as they are completely unelected.

Question 9

Scrutiny: What are some strengths in Commons?

Answer 9

-Parliamentary Privilege gives MPs, essentially, freedom of speech while speaking in Commons, if the issue is in public interests.
-This means they cannot be sued for libel, and enables them to freely scrutinise, like Layla Moran did in 2022 when she named 35 Russian Oligarchs.
-Many roles within commons are intended exclusively to scrutinise gov (opposition, committees, PMQs etc).

Question 10

Scrutiny: What are weaknesses in Commons?

Answer 10

-The work of the Select Committees can be incredibly harsh, and would likely be considered unparliamentary if it were done in Commons.
-Parliamentary Privilege can lead to lack of accountability for what is said in Commons. It can put people in danger, like Soldier F.
-Committees are not binding, and ministers can just ignore the advice provided.

Question 11

Scrutiny: What are strengths in Lords?

Answer 11

-Expertise of members implies that members can scrutinise thoroughly.
-During a committee stage of a bill, any peer can take part in the debate & may table/propose amendments.
-These often amendments help clarify the meaning of the bill, and add clauses to protect vulnerable minorities.

Question 12

Scrutiny: What are weaknesses in Lords?

Answer 12

-Peers in Lords are not, themselves, subject to scrutiny (unless they are in government).

-Party membership in Lords often reflects that of Commons, so this could limit their ability to scrutinise.

Question 13

Representation: What are the strengths in Commons?

Answer 13

-There is a clear MP-constituent link, so they clearly represent that group. This also means that they are accountable to their constituents, (like MPs from Thames Valley going against the proposed Heathrow expansion).
-Youngest MP at present is Keir Mather, who is 26.

Question 14

Representation: What are the weaknesses in Commons?

Answer 14

-Social representation is fairly poor in Commons, as it is disproportionality made up of white males.
-Currently it is made up of: 34% women (all-time high!), 65 ethnic minority MPs (7 of whom were cabinet ministers under Liz Truss), average age of 51 (as of 2019 election, the lowest ever was 49.3 in 1997).
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Question 15

Representation: What are some strengths in Lords?

Answer 15

-Occupational representation.
-They also don’t have the problem of trying to balance representation of constituents with their role in Lords.

Question 16

Representation: What are some weaknesses of Lords?

Answer 16

-Do not represent constituents whatsoever.
-As of Feb 2021, there were 231 women in Lords (around 28%).
-Average age was 71 in 2023. The oldest peer was 98 & youngest 30- not proportionate whatsoever.

Question 17

Debate: What are strengths in Commons?

Answer 17

-Debates are highly structured which enables MPs weight up the pros & cons of proposed bills.
-MPs also debate private member’s bills, and opposition days allow for scrutiny.
-MPs can request an emergency debate, as was done after May’s failure to consult Commons over military strikes in Syria in 2018.

Question 18

Debate: What are weakness in Commons?

Answer 18

-The actual significance of debates is somewhat disputed.
-On a three line whip, MPs can be just as swayed by their whips, as by arguments presented by debates.
-Debates are not compulsory to attend, so often Adjournment Debates take place in front of empty chambers.
-Debates on e-petitions lack the force to actually change law.

Question 19

Debate: What are some strengths in Lords?

Answer 19

-Gives plurality of thought.
-Debates in Lords are much less adversarial than those in Commons, which arguably allows them to debate more effectively.
-Debates in Lords specialise in issues that have a moral or ethical dimension to help inform decision-makers.

Question 20

Debate: What are some weaknesses in Lords?

Answer 20

-Debates in Lords don’t carry much actual weight, as they lack the power to actually dictate decisions.

Question 21

Government: What are some strengths in Commons?

Answer 21

-Legislation & the executive are fused in UK Parliament.
-There is a convention that the major office holders in government will be members of Commons, so it is incredibly effective at this.
-MPs can prove their abilities through their roles in the legislature, as Iain Macleod did. This resulted in Churchill demanding that he be given a role in government.

Question 22

Government: What are weakness in Commons?

Answer 22

-Parliament provides frontbench for Gov & opposition, which restricts choice.
-As many as 1 in 3 members of government may be given a ministerial role.
-PM cannot always appoint minister based on who is most suited to the role, as they have to consider balancing factions.

Question 23

Government: How effective are Lords at providing Governments?

Answer 23

-This is not a major role of theirs, as it would widely be considered undemocratic to appoint an unelected peer to government.

Question 24

Legislation: What are some strengths in Commons?

Answer 24

-Each bill goes through 2 readings in Commons before it reaches the Public Bill Committee Stage. The bill then reaches the report stage where it will be voted.
-MPs can rebel against legislation, as in 2005 when 49 MPs went against Blair’s proposal that terrorist suspects should be held in custody for 90 days (the bill was defeated 291-322). This does make the process more democratic & fair.

Question 25

Legislation: What are some weaknesses in Commons?

Answer 25

-If the government has a large parliamentary majority, it becomes much more easy to pass bills through parliament.
-Composition of Public Bills Committees have been criticised, as they are proportional to Parliament, so the problems with majority governments persists.
-Whips have a lot of influence over selection of PBC and people are instructed to vote in line.

Question 26

Legislation: What are some strengths & weaknesses of Lords?

Answer 26

-Gives a second layer of the legislative process, which helps further protect public interests.
-They are prevented from being overmighty & blocking popular legislation by the one year time limit.
-However, this limit does limit their effectiveness in legislature.

Question 27

Legislation: What are the two types of Bill? What is the difference between them? What is the Salisbury Convention?

Answer 27

-Public Bills & Private Member’s Bill
-A public bill is proposed by the executive, while a PMB is proposed by a backbencher/opposition MP.
-Salisbury Convention is a precedent that Lords will not block any bills mentioned in a new government’s manifesto, at the second/third recording.

Question 28

Legislation: What is the process of a Public Bill becoming law?

Answer 28

-Green Paper consultation, then White Paper public consultations.
-First Reading: No vote/debate takes place. The bill is just introduced.
-Second Reading: Questions & debate. Only two bills have been defeated at this stage since 1945.
-Committee Stage: Bill is scrutinised by a committee.
-Report Stage: Committee reports back to the House & a vote is held based on their suggested amendments.
-Third Reading.
-Stages 1-5 are then repeated in the other house.
-Royal Assent is obtained last.

Question 29

Legislation: What are the three ways that a Private Member’s Bill can be proposed? What are the problems with these?

Answer 29

-There are no Green/White Paper for PMB to be refined before their first reading. They are presented by:
-Ballot, where MPs put forward proposals at the beginning of each Parliament. 20 enter & 7 are debated; Ten Minute Rule, where proposals are put forward in a ten minute speech; Presentation, where an MP formally presents their bill to the HoC.
-However, PMB are discussed on Fridays, so there are normally very few people there. There is also lots of filibustering at these. During its second reading, they can be blocked by an MP simply saying ‘blocked’ (as Christopher Chope did in 2018 against an upskirting bill).

Question 30

Legislation: What are the benefits of PMB, even if they don’t get passed? What is a Quorum? What is Division?

Answer 30

-They raise big issues & garner attention.
-Quorum is the minimum number of MPs present for a decision to be deemed valid, or to allow other Parliamentary business to take place. In Commons, this is 40.
-Division is the name for a vote in Parliament.