Draw backs of the big filthy Parliament boys/big fuckin dirty Parliament shitters

Question 1

HoL Public Bill Committee

Answer 1

Restricted by the Parliament Act 1911 and 1949 reducing the ability to veto to a 1 year delay

Question 2

Select Committees

Answer 2

Select Committees cannot compel witnesses to appear: Oliver Robbins failed to do so on the grounds he was “excused” by the Home Affairs Department.

Recommendations are not binding; the Nuffield Think Tank reports that only 40% such recommendations are actually enacted by the government.

Question 3

Public Bill Committees

Answer 3

> Committees are ad hoc and assigned by Party Whips. This means MPs cannot become policy experts in the field as a) the committee does not last long enough for anything to be learnt and b) whips only appoint passive MPs they know will support the bill.

> The think tank Reform found that only 8% of seats on public bill committees were given to MPs on relevant select committees.

> Sarah Wollaston despite being a GP for several years prior to becoming an MP was not appointed to the Health and Social Care Bill Committee (2012) because she expressed dissenting views on the bill.

> Public Bill Committees will always have a governing party majority: Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (introduced by Theresa May) at committee stage reviewed 1000 amendments but only passed 5.

> They do not possess subpoena to call witnesses.

> “Guillotine” or allocation of time motion by governments on debate length mean debate during the committee stage can be cut; however this is often deployed irregularly.

> 23 of every 25 bills passed in 2016 e.g. Dangerous Dogs Bill was rushed through in a matter of weeks and is considered a poorly constructed piece of legislation

Question 4

Backbench business committee

Answer 4

Only one day is perhaps not sufficient as it has to be packed full of debates.

The Backbench Business Committee is dominated by Conservative MPs currently; this means that they can influence the committee to give extra debate time to Conservative MPs or that not challenging government policy.

Question 5

Ministerial Statements

Answer 5

> MPs can only make individual points and not follow a whole line of questioning .

> Ministers have civil service resources to brief them compared with the limited research backing that MPs have.

> Matrix Churchill case in 1992, Government Ministers had not told the Commons, despite questions from MPs, that the Government had changed its policy and was encouraging a firm to sell arms to Iraq.

Question 6

Introduce laws

Answer 6

• Only 2 Ten Minute Rule Bills were successfully put into statute from 1995 to 2005.
• Only a small proportion of private members’ bills are enacted. This is generally because of lack of time - a controversial private member’s bill can be “talked out”.

Question 7

PMQs/QT

Answer 7

“Prime Minister only very rarely faces any detailed, forensic questioning – because the format makes it far too easy to avoid the question.” -Lynne Featherstone

“too many questions get eaten up by sycophantic soft questions from the government’s own side” -Lynne Featherstone

“PMQs only take place when Parliament is sitting, there are large chunks of the year when if something happens – sorry, no questions allowed.” -Lynne Featherstone

Question 8

Ratifying bills or motions

Answer 8

Often forced to vote in line with party agenda