ETVT parliament need further reform Flashcards
Legislating is in need of reform
Backbenchers have very little influence over creating legislation and policy, the way in which this is done is generally though PMBs. The number of successful PMBs are low and falling, in the 1996-97 session 23 bills were passed whereas only 8 passed in 2016-17 and 6 in 2015-16. Most bills don’t pass unless they have government backing. Reform is needed to give more powers to backbenchers to initiate further reform.
House of Lords have very little influence over legislation at all and having two chambers with equal legislation powers could make for greater quality legislation.
In practise much of the Lords power is restricted by the Parliament Acts (1911) who means that they can only delay bills and amendments can be easily overturned. The Lords made several amendments to the Legal aid, sentencing and punishment of offenders Act (2012) but there were very easily overturned.
Furthermore the Acts give the commons ‘financial privilege’ which means the lords cannot delay money bills that authorise expenditure or taxation. The Lords made three key amendments to the Transparency of Lobbying Act (2014), but the commons overturned all three.
Legislation is not in need of reform
You could argue that the HoL carries out its functions of legislating effectively.
Reform (The House of Lords Act 1999), improving the quality of laws passed, since the 1999 reforms removed many of the hereditary peers in the house and ensured a fairer balance within the parties, this means that the chamber has been more confident in challenging the government.
In the 2017-19 session there were 69 defeats inflicted by the lords, and in the 2013-14 session the lords considered 62 bills and made 1,686 amendments.
Mays government was often defeated in the lords, they defeated the government 15 times in a very short period in 2018 over the EU withdrawal bill.
Since the reform the number of defeats has massively risen, in the 1996-97 session the government was defeated 9 times in the lords whereas in the 2002-03 session there were over 80 defeats, this makes for better quality legislation passed by the commons and the lords. Therefore there is no reform needed.
Although the government carries significant power over legislation they do not have free virtually unchallenged power to legislate. Backbench MPs have significant power over legislation passed.
In 2015 Cameron’s government suffered a defeat in the commons on the rules surrounding the EU referendum and on reforming the Sunday trading laws. Furthermore in 2005 Blairs government were defeated when they attempted to extend the detention of terrorist suspects to 90 days.
Under the coalition the 2010-15 parliament was the most rebellious in history, MPS rebelled in 35% of votes
Representation is in need of reform
The current FPTP system means that the MPs elected into the commons is usually disproportionate and not representative of the popular vote. For example in the 2015 election UKIP won 12.6% if the vote, but this was not effectively represented in the commons as they only won 1 seat. Furthermore in 1997 the Labour party won 63% of the seats in the commons but they only won 43.2% of the popular vote. This is a clear failure of representation, and points to a clear issue in the election system used in parliament, therefore there should arguably be reform.
The House of Lords act 1999, whilst improving its legitimacy and its effectiveness over legislation, has not gone far enough. The lords remains a undemocratic and unelected body.
The house of Lords act 1999 means there are 91 hereditary peers in the chamber, and the remaining are unelected.
They are a unelected chamber, House of Lords reform Bill 2012 was introduced into the commons by Nick Clegg and would have among other reforms made the Lords a mostly elected body, with 120 elected members. Therefore the Lords remains with a number of hereditary peers and all peers are unelected, this means that when the Lords proposes legislation or scrutinises commons legislation they have no mandate and very little legitimacy to do so.
Descriptive representation in the commons remains poor, In the UK women make up only 29% of Parliament, compared to 51% of the general population. Ethnic minority groups make up only 6% of Parliament, versus 13% of the UK population. Similarly, 1/3 of MPs attended feepaying schools (compared with 7% of the population) and 90% attended university, much higher than the national average. 26% of Parliament attended Oxford or Cambridge, versus just 1% of the general population.
Representation is in need of reform
Although you could argue representation in the House of Lords isn’t very good, you could make the argument that this isn’t a massive issue as it is instead filled with experience and expertise that can make effective and good quality legislation that represents the peoples views.
For example Lord Balfe is a former member of the European parliament and Baroness Amos was a former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Representation is not a massive issue.
Descriptive representation in the current parliament is better than ever, in 2019 the most diverse parliament ever was elected, with 220 women, 65 ethnic minorities and 45 LGBTQ+ MPs elected. In 2019 1 in 10 MPs were of ethnic background, ten years prior the number was 1 in 40. Around 13% of the UK population is of ethnic background.
In 2019 labour returned more women than men (51%), Labour has used AWS to select its parliamentary candidates for 2 decades prior and this has led a much more representative parliament.
There are 533 constituencies in England and the average population size, the average constituent size for the UK is 73,181. This means that MPs have a relatively small number of people that they can focus on, meaning they can undergo local representation and effectively represent the views.
The growth of social media has also meant that constituents can express their concerns directly to their local MP, this view will then be represented in parliament. This occurred with gay marriage legislation in 2013, air strikes in Syria in 2016 when a twitter campaign led to many MPS reconsidering their votes. BENFITS OF FPTP
Scrutiny is not in need of reform
One of parliaments role is to check and scrutinise the government, ‘call the government to account’ which enables ministers to explain their actions and justify their policies, this is key to ensuring a responsible government.
Parliamentary questions, whether that is through PMQs or urgent questions.
In 2018 Amber Rudd was summoned back to parliament after twice appearing to give MPs false information about the Governments use of deportation targets, Rudd was subsequently forced to resign as home secretary.
PMQs give the opposition leader and party a platform to challenge the PM and government, for example in 2017 Corbyn used PMQs to effectively overturn a premium rate number used for Universal Credit.
Media attention from PMQs can hold the government to account. For example Boris Johnsons questions on the ‘party gate’ scandal gained significant media traction.
Public Bill committees are established to consider particular bills after it has successfully completed its second reading. According to the think tanks, The Democratic Audit in 2015 over 99% of ministerial amendments moved at the committee stage succeed. Around 3/5 of bill committee members have the relevant specialist knowledge and expertise on the subject.
Liasson committee brings together all 35 chairs of the commons select committees to question the PM, important aspect of parliamentary scrutiny.
2 yearly appearances of the PM, in May 2020 during the Covid-19 crisis the committee held its first session with PM Johnson, and questioned him on the governments handling of the crisis and Dominic Cummings.
Select committee reports receive a good deal of publicity, for example in 2016 the Health Committee recommended a 20% tax on surgery drinks in an effort to discourage people from drinking them, in the same year Chancellor George Osborn was pressured to introduce such tax.
Wright reforms 2010 introduce election through a secret ballot, the party whips now no longer had significant influence over select committee members or their chairs.
Scrutiny is in need of reform
Urgent Questions have to be granted by the speaker and between 1998 and 2010 urgent questions in the commons were relatively rare, under 10 urgent questions were granted each session.
Furthermore although Urgent questions rely a government minister to answer there is no enforcement on who that is. In 2023 Munira Wilson asked a question regarding strip-searching of children by the police, and she showed her discontent that neither the Home Secretary the Policing Minister answered her question.
PMQs has been labelled ‘punch and Judy’ politics, for example when Camaeron joked that Ed Miliband was ‘Alex Salmond’s poodle’ in 2015, Tory MPs made barking noises and once John Bercow has to tell off a Labour MP for making a ‘Lion Roar’.
Labour MP Gerald Kaufman described PMQs as an ‘Exchange of pointless and useless declamations’.
Furthermore they can be coordinated by downing street, pre-prepared questions are handed out to backbenchers, Tory MP Andrew Percy once disclosed a email sent by Downing street to backbench Tories suggesting a set of questions on the governments ‘long-term economic plan’.
Governments can ignore recommendations. 66% of all select committee rulings/recommendations are ignored.
