ETVT that parliament carries out its functions effectively Flashcards
Effective legislation
Parliament it the supreme legislator in the UK, it can make any law it wishes, the role of parliament is to consider the law governments want to pass, debate and scrutinise it well and pass it.
Although the government carries significant power over legislation they do not have free virtually unchallenged power to legislate.
In 2005 Backbench MPs defeated Blairs plans to extend the detention of terrorist suspects to 90 days, despite Tony Blair and the Labour government having a majority.
In 2015 Cameron’s government suffered a defeat in the commons on the rules surrounding the EU referendum, it also lost a vote to reform the Sunday trading laws in England.
Under the coalition government between 2010-2015 parliament was the most rebellious in the post-war era, legislation was not allowed to be passed unchecked, coalition MPs rebelled in 35% of the votes, the largest Lib Dem rebellion was unsurprisingly their pre-election promises on tuition fees, with 21 out of 57 Lib Dem MPs voting against raising their fees.
The Lords has become more defiant since reform in 1999, improving the quality of laws and legislation passed, most hereditary peers were removed, the chamber is therefore more confident to challenge the government, in the 2017-19 session there were 69 defeats inflicted by the lords.
In 2020 Boris Johnsons government lost three votes in the Lords over its Brexit Legislation in 2020.
Mays minority government suffered 28 defeats in 2 years, the heaviest of which was the rejection of her Brexit deal in January 2019 by a resounding 230 majority, with 118 conservative MPs voting against their own party.
Ineffective legislation
Usually the government will have a majority in the Commons, meaning that the rest of the parliament has very little control over legislation and introduce bills into the commons.
Tony Blair won a 179 seat majority in the commons in 1997 and didn’t lose a vote until 2005.
Coalition government was only defeated 7 times.
The Brown government was defeated 3 times between 2007 and 2010.
Legislation not initiated by government ministers by instead by backbenchers are called private member bills, 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.
Parliament Acts mean the Lords can only delay bills, and amendments can be very easily overturned by the government.
House of Lords still have very little influence over legislation, the Lords made several amendments to the Legal aid, Sentencing and punishment of offenders Act in 2012, these were overturned.
HoL made three amendments to the Transparency of Lobbying Act 2014, but the commons overturned all three, legislative power remains with the commons and specifically the government.
