Constitution Examples.

Question 1

What are the Five Sources of the UK Constitution?

Answer 1

Statute Law, Common Law, Conventions, Authoritative works, EU law however, less relevant.

Question 2

Examples of Statute Law?

Answer 2

Economic Crime and Transparency act 2023 - Aims to drive out foreign corrupt funds from UK economy.
Levelling up and Regeneration act 2023 - Speeding up the planning process, cutting bureaucracy and holding developers to account.

Question 3

Examples of Conventions?

Answer 3

Salisbury Convention - Lords will not block Government Manifesto promises or a second or third reading and came into force as the Government often doesn’t have the majority in the Lords.

Sewell Convention - When the UK parliament wants to legislate on a devolved matter they must first receive the consent of the devolved assembly.

Question 4

Examples of Authoritative Works?

Answer 4

Walter Bagehot 1867 - The English Constitution - Sets out the roles of the cabinet Ministers, he referred to them as First Amongst Equals.
A. V. Dicey 1885 - An introduction to the study of the Law of the Constitution - Focused on Parliamentary sovereignty, “twin pillars of the constitution”.

Question 5

What is set out by the rule of law?

Answer 5

No one can be punished without trial, No one is above the Law, General Constitutional principles result from Judge made common Law.

Question 6

New Labour Constitutional Reform Examples.

Answer 6

Human Rights act 1998, Freedom of Information act 2000 - greater access to information held by public bodies, Lords Reform Act - removed all but 92 hereditary peers, Constitutional Reform Act 2005 - Supreme Court opened 2009.

Question 7

Coalition Government reform examples.

Answer 7

Fixed Terms Parliament act 2011, Scotland act 2012, Protection of freedoms act 2012, House of Lords reform act 2014, Wales act 2014.

Question 8

Boris Johnson constitutional reform?

Answer 8

Early Parliamentary Election act of 2019.

Question 9

Scottish Devolution?

Answer 9

1998 Scottish Devolution Referendum - 74.3% for Scottish Assembly, 63.5% for tax. Compromised of 129 MSP’s, Scotland act 2012 made Scottish parliament, Scotland act 2016 gave 50% of VAT revenue raised in Scotland to Scotland - £15 billion. 2014 Independence referendum - 84.5% turnout, 55.3% vote no.

Question 10

Welsh Devolution?

Answer 10

1997 Welsh Assembly referendum - 50.1% turnout, 50.3% yes to devolution. Welsh Assembly has 60 Members. 2006 Government of Wales act offered more powers if approved in a referendum - 2011 referendum resulted in 64% yes vote.
Wales act 2014 - devolved power to landfill tax and stamp duty.
Wales Act 2017 - 10% of Welsh income tax revenue.

Question 11

Northern Irish Devolution?

Answer 11

Communal Conflict, Distinctive Party System, Security. 1998 Good Friday Agreement - Power sharing deal, UK and Ireland amend their constitutions to clarify Northern Ireland’s position. 108 members.
81% turnout, 71% yes, 29% no.
2002 - 2007, 2017 - 2020 Suspensions 2022 -

Question 12

What did the Act of Settlement do?

Answer 12

It was signed in 1701 and it made it so that the line of succession can only pass through protestants, catholics can no longer have the crown. This extended to people that had married a Roman Catholic which indirectly led to a Union with Hannover.

Question 13

What did the Acts of Union do?

Answer 13

It was signed in 1707 and brought together the UK and Scotland into one singular union under the crown on the basis of a treaty signed between the two parliaments in 1706.

Question 14

What did the 1911 Act of Parliament do?

Answer 14

It entirely removed the right of the House of Lords to veto money bills and placed a limit on the length that they could veto a public bill to just two years. It also set the maximum term for parliament to just 5 years rather than 7.

Question 15

What did the 1949 Act of Parliament do?

Answer 15

It built upon the 1911 Act by limiting the veto for public bills to just one year.

Question 16

Explain the Nature of the UK Constitution?

Answer 16

• It is un-entrenched in the sense that it is easy to change due to parliamentary sovereignty which enables parliament to change it in any way that they deem fit.
• It is uncodified in sense that it is not found in one single document and is found in a number of different documents.
• It is Unitary in the sense that a majority of power is centralised around parliament.

Question 17

What are the twin pillars of the UK constitution?

Answer 17

Constitutional Monarchy and the Fusion of Powers. Outside of this there is also the ideal of parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law.

Question 18

How did Labour reform the House of Lords?

Answer 18

Labour passed the 1999 House of Lords Act which limited the number of hereditary peers to just 92 who were voted on by the Lords, another 10 of whom were made into life peers. It also reduced the Number of Lords from 1’330 to 669 by 2000. The House of Lord Appointment commission now also promoted a proportion of Lords on an apolitical basis.

Question 19

How did Labour Carry out electoral reform?

Answer 19

Various forms of proportional systems were introduced for Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and European Elections. They also ordered a commission led by Roy Jenkins to investigate the effect of First Past the Post on General elections however, nothing came of this. Some argue that this is due to them winning such a significant majority in 1997.

Question 20

Why did Labour implement devolution?

Answer 20

Scotland - It was very much a pragmatic effort in an attempt to limit the influence of the SNP and dampen their support.

Northern Ireland - Aimed to bring to give Nationalist and Unionist parties and in turn stop further violence.

Wales - There was less demand for independence in Wales and in turn the Welsh assembly gained less power than the Scottish Parliament.

Question 21

What did the Human Rights Act 1998 do?

Answer 21

It incorporated the ECHR into UK law enshrining rights such as fair trial, freedom from slavery and degrading treatment, respect from privacy and the right to family life. All future legislation had to be compatible with ECHR and judges can strike down law if its not. However, the act is unentrenched as proven by 2005 control orders which removed the right to liberty if suspected of terrorism.

Question 22

What did the 2005 Constitutional Reform act do?

Answer 22

It established the Supreme Court which came into force in 2009 which made it the highest Court of Appeal in UK cases except for Scotland. Previously Law Lords had performed this function and by removing them the separation of powers increased.

Question 23

Why was the Coalition keen on carrying out constitutional reform?

Answer 23

• As part of the agreement between the Lib Dems and Conservatives the Lib Dems demanded Constitutional reform.
• Cameron wanted to appear as a more liberal prime minister and restore public confidence in the government.

Question 24

What did the Fixed terms Parliament Act 2011 do?

Answer 24

It ended the prime ministers power to call for an immediate general election, instead a new parliament will be elected every 5 years unless 2/3rds of MPs vote in favour of an election or if a Prime Minister after losing a vote in no confidence isn’t able to form a government after 14 days. It was removed in 2022 with the Election reform act.

Question 25

What was the 2011 Welsh Devolution Referendum Over?

Answer 25

It was surrounding the issue of the Welsh assembly should be able to implement primary legislation of which 63.5% voted in favour of.

Question 26

What did the Government of Wales Act 2014 do and what helped influence it?

Answer 26

The Silk Commission investigated possibilities for future devolution settlement in Wales. It Published part 1 which discussed financial powers of the assembly and part 2 which discussed future legislative powers. The act created new taxation and borrowing powers.

Question 27

What did EVEL do?

Answer 27

EVEL was passed in 2015 and was an attempt to answer the West Lothian Question. The speaker had new powers to declare legislation English only and in turn create a new legislative stage. It was abolished in 2021.

Question 28

In what ways did Brexit restore Government Sovereignty?

Answer 28

• It converted EU law into statute law which in turn gives the Government the ability to amend and change it.
• Government is free to make treatise and trade agreements outside of the EU.
• EU law no longer remains supreme over UK parliamentary law.
• There will be no influence of the ECJ over UK laws in turn meaning that the Supreme Court is the most influential court.
• Disputes between the UK and EU will now be referred to an independent tribunal instead.

Question 29

In what ways did Brexit actually reduce Government Sovereignty?

Answer 29

• Parliament had never lost it’s sovereignty to the EU instead it was part of pooled sovereignty which gave the UK influence across the EU.
• Parliament could leave the EU at any point.
• Most EU law covered issues such as the environment and trade regulations meaning that in order to trade with the EU they would have to abide by these regulations anyway.
• EU rules and law still apply to Northern Ireland in order to avoid hardening the border with Ireland, in turn there are now checks from Northern Ireland to the UK.
• Tariffs may emerge if disputes break out between the UK and the EU.

Question 30

What did the Scotland Act 2016 do?

Answer 30

After the referendum on independence the Government fulfilled it’s promise to transfer more power to Scotland (Devo Max). This gave the Scottish parliament greater financial independence, new welfare powers and more legislative power.

Question 31

What did the Wales act 2017 do?

Answer 31

It gave the Welsh assembly further tax raising powers and in turn further cemented primary legislative authority of the devolved Welsh assembly.

Question 32

What are the devolved powers of the Scottish Government?

Answer 32

Agriculture - Deals with matters regarding animal welfare but not animal testing.
Benefits - Includes things such as child disability payments and carer’s allowance supplement.
The Crown Estate - They manage crown lands within Scotland.
Economic development, elections, energy such as the promoting of green energy, fire services and various other things. They also have the ability to set their own tax bands with the exception of personal allowance.

Question 33

What are the devolved powers of the Welsh Assembly?

Answer 33

They have legislative competence over laws regarding health and social change, housing, education, transport, business, economic development, social services, language and culture and more. Since 2017 they have also gained significant tax raising powers and it was estimated to have covered £5 million in tax revenues which was about a third of Welsh Spending in 2018.

Question 34

What are the devolved powers of the Stormont?

Answer 34

They have similar powers to Scotland however, they can legislate on reserved powers such as import and export controls and the regulation of firearms provided that they have permission from the Secretary of State.

Question 35

What are the devolved powers of the London Assembly?

Answer 35

Their primary function is to hold the mayor to account and scrutinize their policies. The Mayor has a budget of £21.5 billion to allocate to various services such as the MET police and the mayor’s two development programs.

Question 36

Give 2 examples of bills currently being discussed in the Scottish Parliament.

Answer 36

Abortion Services Safe Action Zone - Introduced by Gillian Mackay who is a member of the Scottish Green Party in order to create safe access zones for all places providing abortion services in Scotland.