Functions of Parliament

Question 1

What role does Parliament play in legitimation?

Answer 1

Legislation must be debated in both houses, bills are made legitimate by being passed through parliament.

Question 2

Describe the Parliament’s role of financial control and scrutiny.

Answer 2

Spending allocations must be approved in parliament - the government needs parliaments approval on financial arrangements.
The public accounts committee considers the effectiveness of government expenditure

Question 3

How does parliament represent?

Answer 3

Individual MPs try to represent the people in their constituencies
MPs are expected to represent their party and its manifesto by ‘toeing the party line’

Question 4

How does the Lords’ power of delay work?

Answer 4

If the HOL rejects a bill, that same piece of legislation cannot become law for a year thus pushing the commons to amend it.

Question 5

Give an example of ping-ponging

Answer 5

The welfare reform bill went back and forth between the houses for a year in 2011-12.

Question 6

What are crossbenchers and why are they necessary?

Answer 6

Peers with no party allegiance, to prevent total domination by the parties in the Lords.

Question 7

How is the membership structure of the HOL significant?

Answer 7

• Gov is prevented from enjoying an absolute majority in the Lords
• Whips had little leverage over peers with party allegiance because politics is not their principal occupation
• Since peers have a previous occupation they have a wider variety of experience than MPs and so represent a wider range of interests in society.

Question 8

Give two ways in which the HOL has become more significant.

Answer 8

Two of the below:

• 1999 reform removing all but 92 hereditary peers gave the Lords greater authority
• Since the incorporation of the European convention on human rights into British law in 1998, the Lords developed a ‘rights culture’ and assumed a role of “guardian of individual rights’
• Large governmental majorities meant that opposition in the Commons was weak therefore the HOL assumed an active role in parliamentary opposition
• The coalition gov lacked a true democratic mandate as it’s arrangement was not presented to the electorate, giving the HOL grounds to argue that gov is also not elected this considerable freedom to challenge coalition policy.

Question 9

How has the HOL defied the government in 2018?

Answer 9

April 2018 the HOL defeated government EU bills 5 times in one week.

Question 10

Describe two limitations on the Lords.

Answer 10

Any two of the below:

• No power over financial arrangements of government due to the parliament act of 1911
• Can only delay the passage of bills for a year due to the parliament act of 1949
• Its members agree that they will not block legislation that clearly appeared in the gov’s previous election manifesto - due to the Salisbury convention
• Any amendments proposed by the lords must be approved by the commons