Chapter 16- Parliamentary law making

Question 1

What is the house of commons/ what occurs in the house of commons?

Answer 1

-Mps are elected by the electorate
-must be a general election every 5 years
-There may be by-elections in constituencies
where an mp has died or retired
-Government of the day is formed by the house of commons majority party
-The government has the main say in formulating new Acts of Parliament

Question 2

What is the House of Lords (HoL)?

Answer 2

• non-elected body
• before 1999 there were over 1,100 members of whom 750 were hereditary peers and the rest consisted of life peers, judges and bishops
• In 1999 Labour gov reviewed the membership and decided that it should consist of some nominated members and some elected members
• And decided that an inherited title shouldn’t automatically allow a person to take part in law-making
• Changes were made to the membership; 92 hereditary peers, 640 life peers and 26 bishops
• This was meant to be temporary, but there hadn’t been an agreement on how many of the House of Lords should be elected
• The 12 most senior judges used to sit in the HoL but no longer do (Supreme Court)