COMPONENT 2: PARLIAMENT (20 Flashcards
What is the structure of the UK Parliament?
The Uk parliament is bicameral with 2 chambers, the upper house ( i.e HOL) and the lower house ( i.e HOC), with the lower house being superior.
- The usual reason for this is because it creates some kind of balance in the political system.
What is the composition of the House of Commons?
- There are 650 Members of Parliament, each elected from a constituency.
- Backbench Mps ( those Mps who do not hold any gov post or are not senior members of the main opposition party) are very much the majority. They can be more independent than frontbench Mps but are still expected to show party loyalty.
- Mps are divided into frontbench and backbench, with frontbench Mps being senior. In the governing party, they are ministers and party officials appointed by the Prime Minister. Normally, there are about 90 frontbench Mps on the governing side. The leading members of the main opposition party ( spokespersons and shadow ministers) are also known as frontbench Mps. Normally there are about 50 of these. Front bench Mps are expected to be loyal to their party leaderships.
- All Main parties appoint Whips who work under a chief whip. The whips are mainly conerned with ensuring that Mps in their parties are informed about parliamentary business. They also try to ensure party loyalty and persuade reluctant Mps to support their party’s line. Whips may also inform their party leadership of how MPs are feeling about an issue and warn of possible rebellions.
- Virtually all Mps represent a political party. Occasionally, independant Mps have been elected but this is rare, No independants were elected in 2019. Sometimes, though, an Mp may resign or be expelled from a party and serve out the rest of their term as an independant. For Example, UKIP’s only Mp, Douglass carswell left the party and became an independant in 2017.
- The proceedings of the HOC are presided over by the speaker, an Mp who is elected by all other Mps. Though the speaker comes from one of the parties, he or she is expected to put aside their party allegiance when chairing the commons. The speaker is expected to organise the Business of Parliament along with party leaderships, to maintain order and discipline in debates, to decide who gets to speak in debated and to settle any disputes.
What is the composition of the House Of Lords?
26 Members are Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England.
- 92 Members are hereditary peers (nearly all men) who have inherited a title which entitles them to sit in the House of Lords. In fact, of the overall 768 membership of the HOL 547 are men compared to 221 Women.
- Most members are life peers, unlike hereditary peers their title dies with them. Most life peers are nominated by the Prime Minister and leaders of the other main parties. They are political appointments and are expected to follow their party’s line on most issues. There are also non political peers appointed on the recommendation of non government organisations and even members of the public. There is a HOL Appointment commission which decides which people shall be appointed and which can also vet unsuitable nominees nominated by party leaders.
- The equivalent of the HOC speaker is the Lord Speaker. Lord Mcfall is the current speaker, elected in 2021. The Lord speaker oversees proceedings in the Lords Chamber and plays a key role in the Lords administration.
- There are Frontbench spokespersons in the HOL. The government must have representatives in the HOL as virtually all its business goes through both houses. Like their counterparts in the commons, front benchers are expected to be loyal to their party leaderships. Current conservative Leader of the HOL is Natalie Evans.
- There is no firm constitutional principle concerning the balance of party members in the HOL. In general, there is a convention that parties are able to make nominations roughly in proportion to their strength in the HOC, But as life peers are appointed for life, it can take many years to change the balance of party strength in the HOL.
*.The political make-up of the HOL is different to that of the commons. In particular, it is now always the case that the governing party does not have an overall majority of members. There are so many non-political members ( Known as Crossbenchers) that there cannot be a governing majority.
How many types of primary legislation are there, and describe the differences between each?
Primary Legislation: Acts of Parliament
There are 3 main types of Primary Legislation:
- Private Bills
If an organisation, for example a local authority or church, wishes to take some action which the law currently forbids it from doing, it can apply for a private Bill to be passed by parliament to allow it to go ahead. These are normally considered by committees of one house or the other.
- Private Members’ Bills
These rarely become laws
Members from both houses can introduce this bill through the ballot, ten minute rule and presentation.
Ballot: A. ballot is held at the beginning of each parliament in which 20 bills enter the ballot and the top seven are usually debated. Most are introduced in this manner.
Ten Minute Rule: Mps can put forward their proposals for a bill in a speech of 10 minutes, but this is much less likely to be successful.
Presentation: An Mp formally presents a Private Member’s Bill to the HOC.
The fact that so few private Member’s Bills become law has been used to demonstrate the lack of influence of backbenchers. Most originate in the HOC, limited time is given to debate them on a Friday and since many Mps have returned to their constituencies there may not even be a sufficient number present for a vote, which is necesaary if the bill is to progress.
Hostile Mps can take out a bill which is known as filibustering.
The impact of private Member’s bills can be more to do with raising the profile of a particular issue rather than actually changing law.
If the Bill has cross-party support and the gov looks favourably upon it, it does have a chance of becoming a bill.
e.g the Homelessness reduction act of 2018
During the second reading of a private members bill, any Mp can block it. by shouting ‘oppose’. Christopher Chope in 2018, shouted oppose in relation to 2 such bills with government support, one which would have banned ‘upskirting’ and another to give additional legal protections to police animals.
- Public Bills ( Government Bills)
- Most bills fall into this category, they are presented by Gov and are expected to be passed without much obstruction because gov will be able to give the bill sufficent time to be debated and can also rely on whips to encourage support.
If the proposed legilsation was in the governing party’s election manifesto, the HOL according to the salisbury convention will not seek to obstruct it either.
White Papers are policy documents produced by the Government that sets out their proposals for future legilsation. This provides a basis for furthur consultation and discussion with interested or affected groups and allows final changes to be made before a bill is formally presented to parliament.
Hybrid Bills: Bills which mix the characteristics of Public & Private Bills. The changes to the law proposed by a Hybrid Bill would affect the greater public but would also have a significant impact for specific individuals or groups.
How does proposed llegislation become law?
Origin: A bill may originate as a green paper (A document setting out options for legislation and inviting consultation) and/ or a white paper. ( This whole stage is not compulsory).
First reading ( in the commons): First cumpulsory stage, where the bill is made available to Mps by the relevant Ministers but it is not debated or voted on at this stage.
Second Reading: Principle of the Bill is debated and a vote may be taken if contested.
Committe stage: Bill is scrutinised in detail by a public Bill committee, whose membership reflects the strength of parties in the commons. Amendments may be made at this stage if the gov is prepared to accept them.
Report Stage: Whole House considers amendments made at the committe stage, either accepting or rejecting them.
Third Reading: Amended Bill is debated and voted on by the whole house.
House of Lords Stages: Bills goes through the same stages in the Lords, with the exception of the committe stage, which is carried out by the whole house. The lords can propose amendments. Commons has to decide whether to accept, reject or further amend these. Bill can go back and forth between the 2 houses for up to a year before it becomes law, in a process popularly known as ‘parliamentary ping pong’.
Royal Assent: Monarch signs the bill, making it law. This stage is a formality as the sovereign is a constitutional Monarch, who would not get involved in Politics by refusing to sign a bill.
How many types of secondary legislation are there, and what are the differences between each one?
Secondary Legislation also known as delegated Legislation is used to add information or make changes to an existing Act of Parliament.
Parliament delegates law making power to other bodies through the ‘Parent Act’, which creates the framework of the new law. It also specifies who can make more detailed law and how, thus allowing Government to make a small change to the law without having to. introduce an entirely new bill.
There are 3 main types of secondary legislation:
- Statutory Instruments
Most frequently used type of delegated legislation.
Essentially they are regulations made by government Ministers within their area of Ministerial responsibility under the authority of a ‘parent Act’.
e.g Minister of transport can make SIs concerning road traffic under the authority of the Road Traffic Act 1998.
Used to update primary legislation or fill in the necassary detail, which is too complex to be incorporated into an Act.
Most SIs are not considered by Parliament, so there is little or no scrutiny and few checks on their use or quality.
Ultra Vires:
The joint committee on statutory Instruments, checks almost all SIs to make sure they are legal and do not stray beyond powers delegated.
The decision making person/ body must have legal power to make the decision, if not it will be acting beyond its power and can be challenged in the Courts
e.g Micheal Howard and the Jamie Bulger case.
In Ocotber 2015, the Lords voted to delay tax credit cuts in order to protect those who would lose out.
What are the Functions of the House of Commons?
- Legislating:
- Most Important Constitutional function of the Hoc is to make, amend and pass laws.
- Most Laws passed in the Commons, are created and amended by the Gov of the day and then progressed to the HOL.
- In a sense, the commons are supporting the Government by granting legitimacy for what it does.
- By the Salisbury Convention, the HOL will not block or oppose any terms contained within a winning party’s manifesto
- HOC must approve taxation/ Expenditure by the Gov, everytime a chnage is proposed. This process occures every spring/summer after the Chancellor has announced the annual Budget.
Private Members Legislation: When Backbench Mps develop their own legislation and this can be introduced in 3 ways:
- Ballot: Where names of Backbench Mps are randomly drawn on the 2nd Thursday of a parliamentary session and are allocated specific time to introduce and have the proposed bill discussed
- Ten Minute Rule: Mps make a 10 Minute speech in support of the proposed bill
- Presentation: Mps notify the House of their Intention to propose a new bill and then present the bill to the house
During 2017-19, 15 Private Members Bills achieved Royal Assent and became statute Law.
- Scrutiny of Government
Most Important political Function of Uk parliament.
The commons call the Government to account on a regular basis, this role has a number of aspects:
- Take the form of criticising government, this usually happens during sessions devoted to questions to ministers or PMQT.
- Refer to the idea of forcing the Gov to Justify its policies and decisions. This can be through departmental select committees and public accounts committee members of the commons, who have the opportunity to investigate the ‘quality of Gov’, whether taxpayers’ money is being spent well or whether the Gov is effecient etc.
- Refuse to pass a piece of legislation.
e.g In April 2016, when the commons voted against a new law extending legal opening hours for large stores on sunday.
When this happens repeatdly, the Gov is weakened and made to appear ineffective, forcing a PM from power.
e.g Theresa May suffered 33 defeats in passing proposals for Brexit.
- Commons can remove a Gov by passing a vote of no confidence
- Scrutinise legislation proposed by Gov
All backbench Mps serve on legislative committees, which examine proposed legislation to see if it can be improved to protect the interests of minorities. However this is weak, as they are dominated by party/ Gov Whips.
What are the Functions of the House of Commons?
- Representation
Constituency Representation
- An Mp represents and takes care of the interests of all constituents, no matter whom, they voted for.
- May involve lobbying a minister whose department is proposing something that is unpopular in their constituency or might involve raising the matter on the floor of the HOC.
- Sometimes the interests of a constituency may run counter to Gov policy and usually Mps abandon theur party allegiance/ loyalty & lobby for their constituency.
e.g. conservative Mps in Thames valley over proposed expansion of heathrow
The representation of groups:
- Mps also pursue the interests of a section of society or a particular cause, as a result of their background before they became Mps
e.g Former business leaders will support their former industry
- Pressure groups/ organisation like friends of the Earth try to recruit Mps to their cause as it gives them exposure in parliament.
- Most Important groups represented in the commons are political parties
FPTP creates a 2 party state & the commons doesnt actually represent the proportion of votes
e.g Conservatives won 43.6% of the votes but 56.1% of the seats.
Increasingly, Campaign groups encourage supporters to write to Mps in large numbers to try and furthur their cause
e.g HS2, Fracking
Mps have also formed themselves into groups to pursue a particular interest/ cause by creating cross party groups to exert collective pressure on Gov over key issues such as islamaphobia, sex equality etc.
National Debate:
On Major issues like an armed conflict or a time of national crisis such as covid, it is parliament ( Both Houses) that are called upon to debate the issues and express the national will.
Parliament is seen at its best, when party allegiances are set aside, when powerful speeches are heared and when representatives can be heared above the noise of party conflict.
e.g Iraq War 2003
Social Representation:
Argument that a legislative body, should reflect the people socially, ensuring that all sections of society are effectively represented in proportion to their size in society.
In 2019, despite being the Most socially diverse parliament elected in history, its domination by male, white Mps over the age of 50 as well as by a disproportionately large number of privately educated Mps, suggests the HOC is far from socially representative.
What are the Functions of Both Houses?
Legislating:
Positive aspects:
- Legislation has to go through both houses, so there is effective scrutiny
- Professional experience of the Lords Can help improve legislation
- House of Lords can veto legislation, to make the Government think Again.
- Members of the HOC and HOL can introduce a private members bill
Negative Aspects:
- House of Commons can ultimately bypass the Lords, as they are elected.
- Government Dominates the legislative process, as most private member bills are rarely passed
- With statutory Instruments, there is little or no scrutiny and few checks on their use of quality. Also with statutory instruments there have been cases of ultra Vires ( Micheal Howard and the Jamie Bulger case)
- Parliamentary Ping pong.
What are the functions of both Houses?
- Scrutiny of Government
Positive Aspcets:
- Through departmental select Committees and public accounts committee members of the HOC have the opportunity to investigate the ‘quality of gov’, forcing the gov to justify its decisions and policies.
- If the opposition is united, they provide an effective check on the Government.
- Commons can remove a Gov by passing a vote of No confidence
- Independance of the Lords and the political/ Professional experience ot its members means that scrutiny of its backbenchers is highly regarded.
Negative Aspects:
- Departmental and public accounts committees usually reflect party composition.
- Select committees can not force the Gov to Act on its recommendations.
- Mps still lack the expertise, knowledge, research and time to investigate gov thoroughly.
- The opposition is only effective, when the GOV is weak, has a slim majority or it is in a coalition.
- Backbenchers are not effective, if the government has landslide majority, they also have to follow party whips.
- PMQs are inadequate, as the PM is informed of the questions and can write a response before hand. Also 30 minutes once a week is not long enough to hold someone accountable.
( PMQs are televised)
What are the Functions of Both Houses?
- Representation
Positive Aspects:
- Lords can focus on issues that affect different sections of society and allow a greater range of opinion and views to be represented as they dont need to conern themseleves with the needs of a constituency, getting re-elected and listening to party Whips.
-On Major issues like an armed conflict or a time of national crisis, Both houses can debate the issue and express national will
e.g Iraq War 2003
- No single party has an overall majority
- Many of those sitting in the HOL come from non-political backgrounds and represent a wide range of experience.
- Parliament elected in 2019, currently the most diverse we have had
Negative Aspects:
- Social Makeup of the HOL and HOC does not reflect the population, it is dominated by male, white Mps over the age of 50 who are privately educated.
- Mps have to follow the party line and Whips, so therefore they cannot vote independantly with their conscience.
- 8% of the population is privately educated, 29% of Mps in the HOC and 62% in the HOL are educated privately,
