introduction

Question 1

1) parliament consists of….

Answer 1

the house of commons and the house of lords

one of its key roles is to scrutinise the government through debating, questioning ministers and conducting work in select committees

Question 2

2) the debate on the effectiveness of parliamentary scrutiny is important today because…

Answer 2

there are increasing questions being raised regarding whether the executive is escaping crucial checks and in turn becoming too powerful

which is highlighted further by the Great Repeal Bill which will give ‘Henry VIII’ powers to the executive, allowing them to create and amend laws without full parliamentary scrutiny

Question 3

3) on one hand…

Answer 3

parliament does effectively scrutinise the executive through their work on select committees and PMQs with the Lords being even more effective as they are less restricted by party whips

Question 4

4) on the other hand…

Answer 4

the executive dominates select committees, the Lords tend to back down and PMQs rarely achieve what they intend to which suggests that parliament may not provide effective scrutiny

Question 5

5) but on the whole…

Answer 5

while there are limits to the scrutiny provided by parliament, they are still very effective and without them the executive would indeed hold too much power