Legislation & Parliament (General)

Question 1

What is primary legislation?

Answer 1

legislation made by Parliament, in the form of Acts of Parliament

Question 2

What is secondary legislation?

Answer 2

legislation made by bodies other than Parliament under powers granted to them by Partliament

Question 3

What is another term for secondary legislation?

Answer 3

delegated legislation

Question 4

What is the main difference between primary and secondary legislation?

Answer 4

secondary legislation can be subject to judicial review in courts

Question 5

What are the 3 main functions of parliament?

Answer 5

i) to legislate; ii) to deal with public finance; iii) to provide a forum in which the actions and policies of the government may be publicly scrutinised

Question 6

When may an MP lose their as a result of a recall petition?

Answer 6

i) when the MP is convicted of an offence an receives a custodial sentence; ii) when the House of Commons orders the suspension of the MP for at least 10 sitting days following a report from the Committee of Standards; iii) when the MP is convicted (under s.10 Parliamentary Standards Act 2009) of an offence of providing false or misleading information for allowances claims

Question 7

What is the House of Lords composed of?

Answer 7

Lords Temporal and Lords Spiritual

Question 8

What are the Lords Temporal composed of?

Answer 8

hereditary peers, life peers, and judicial peers

Question 9

What are the Lords Spiritual?

Answer 9

a group of 26 Bishops of the Church of England

Question 10

Who are the 5 ex officio Spiritual Peers?

Answer 10

the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the bishops of Durham, London, and Winchester

Question 11

What is a cross-bencher?

Answer 11

members of the Lords who are politically neutral

Question 12

What are the 3 forms of primary legislation?

Answer 12

public, private, hybrid

Question 13

What is the ‘guillotine’ officially known as?

Answer 13

an Allocation of Time Motion

Question 14

What is an Allocation of Time Motion?

Answer 14

a procedure available in the House of Commons which sets a limit on the amount of time that may be spent on a particular stage(s) of a bill

Question 15

What is a programme motion?

Answer 15

…

Question 16

What does EVEL stand for?

Answer 16

English Votes for English Laws

Question 17

What is a money bill?

Answer 17

a bill that relates exclusively to central government expenditure, taxation, or loans

Question 18

What is the literal rule?

Answer 18

meaning is derived from the application of rules of grammar and dictionary definitions of words

Question 19

What is a problem with the literal rule in statutory interpretation?

Answer 19

it assume that meanings are clear

Question 20

What is the golden rule of interpretation?

Answer 20

when a literal interpretation would lead to absurdity or inconsistency with the rest of the statute, so statute may be modified to avoid the absurdity and inconsistency

Question 21

What is the mischief rule?

Answer 21

an old rule whereby the reason (mischief) for the creation of an Act is considered, and the court is to interpret the Act to suppress the mischief and give effect to the remedy

Question 22

What are the four points of the mischief rule?

Answer 22

1) what was the common law before the making of the Act; 2) what was the mischief and defect for which the common law did not provide; 3) what remedy the Parliament hath resolved and appointed to cure the disease of the Commonwealth; 4) the true reason of the remedy -

Question 23

What is the unified contextual approach?

Answer 23

an approach that draws on all the rules of interpretation