Parliament

Question 1

House of Commons

Answer 1

Democratically elected by the people

• 650 members of the HOC
• MPs is elected through FPTP
• They are frontbencher and backbenchers

Question 2

House of Lords

Answer 2

Appointed not elected and has no limit to its membership. Over 800

• Appointed life peers and hereditary peers.
• AV vote is used to vote for a replacement if a person dies.

Question 3

Main function of HOC -1

Answer 3

1. Passing Legislation
   - Bills are mainly initiated in the commons by the Government(so by the executive rather than legislature itself).
   - Most laws are passed due to government majorities but on occasion, there are rebellions from government backbench MPs.

Question 4

Main function HOC-2

Answer 4

Scrutiny of the Executive
-The Job of the opposition is to hold the government accountable. even though Johnson seems rather put out when Starmer does this. Ministers must explain and defend their policies in parliament.

Question 5

Main function of the HOC-3/4

Answer 5

Question to Ministers(PMQ)-each Wednesday but it’s more about point-scoring than genuine scrutiny of the government.

-Select Committees: Look closely at the work of departments and hold them to account.

Question 6

main function of HOC-5

Answer 6

Debates:Pushed forward by the backbench Mps.
-Providing Ministers: All governments must sit in the HOC or HOL. PM has power of patronage.Biases as some of the people aren’t even well skilled in their department.

Question 7

Main function of HOC

Answer 7

Representing the Electorate:Represents the will of the people-interest of their constituents.
Over the years many aspects have slowly improved but women are still very under represented.

Question 8

Main function of House of Lords-1

Answer 8

Passing of Legislation:The Lords vote on legislation but do not have the power to block the Bill.And because of this even if they rejected a bill in a year rge HOC can still force the bill through.
-The Lords can’t block bills that come from the manifest or any finance bills.

Question 9

Main function of HOL-2

Answer 9

Scrutiny of the Executive

• Question ministers-normally Junior ministers whose job is to oversee the passage of bills through the Lords.
• Committees:There are committees that are topic(constitution,science,etc) based rather than department based.

Question 10

Main function of HOL-3

Answer 10

-Debates:often of high quality as the Lords contains experts in many fields but unlikely to have much more impact as the power of the Lords are so limited.

Question 11

How well does parliament fulfil their roles?

Commons

Answer 11

-Commons:There are significant issues with their roles
>The party system(majority) limits the strength of scrutiny and the commons can simply see tribal politics rather than proper scrutiny of the government..
>Cabinet ministers often have scant relevant experience of the areas they end up in control of.
>The Brexit crisis has been a renaissance in the power of parliament -even if this was in art due to their being a minority government.

Question 12

How well does parliament fulfil their roles?

Lords

Answer 12

Highly Limited by parliament Acts and fact it is unelected but can offer expert opinion and raise public awareness of concerns over government action.Reform is needed.

Overall:Most Legislation is soundly written and can be enacted successfully.Rare examples of badly constructed legislation include the dangerous Dog Act of 1991.

Question 13

Parliament structure and roles-power of HOC-1/2

Answer 13

• The common can hold a vote of no confidence and bring down a government.Bizarre situation in 2019 when seemingly wanted to trigger an election.
• From 2017 to 2019 there was a minority conservative government that used a ‘confidence supply’ agreement with the DUP. The DUP did this in exchange for £1 billion money pledge to NI.

Question 14

powers of HOC-3/4

Answer 14

The HOC can insist on legislation if the commons votes for a bill to become law.
Note:The Lords can delay for a year but not veto.

-If bills that reflect manifesto pledge by the government then HOL can’t block it.

Question 15

Power of HOC-5/6

Answer 15

• If a bill is a finance bill then the Lords cannot amend it.This essentially means that the HOC has power over taxation and public spending. HOC had used this power for Welfare reform bill 2012,2020,2021.
• Secondary legislation-changes made to laws in previous Acts of parliament.The HOC can override the Lords changes due to Strathclyde reviews of the Lord’s.This gives the ideas of the supremacy of the HOC.

Question 16

powers of HOL

Answer 16

Their powers have been limited from the beginning in 1911 and 1949 parliament Acts
Lords play a major role in scrutinizing and revising legislation and can propose amendments.

Lords can force a General election if HOC hasn’t had one in 5 years.

Question 17

Powers of both houses

Answer 17

There isn’t really a relative power because clearly the HOC has the most power and without major reforms to the Lords this will remain the case.

Recent elections have suggested the Lords should act more as a check especially as the commons ability is limited by party politics.

Question 18

Parliament’s Legislative process

Answer 18

Types of Bills
-Government Bills-Bill brought forward by the governments

-Private Bills -Organisation can petition parliament to change the law on something that affects them.e.g
Hybrid Bill mixture of the above e.g HS2 bill.

Question 19

Parliament is sovereign in the following ways.1/2

Answer 19

This first of all means that it is parliament that makes the laws-it’s not directly the prime minister however in reality it is this way.
-parliament creates,amend,remove laws as it is the legislation making chamber.

Question 20

Parliament is sovereign in the following ways 3/4

Answer 20

The uk doesn’t have a separation of powers rather a fusion of power for example our prime minister is also the party leader-executive and legislature are linked(strong overlap of certain individuals(PM,cabinet,the government,).

-Parliament at westminister is where sovereignty lies(even with devolution-shared powers).

Question 21

parliament is sovereign in the following way-5

Answer 21

-Parliament is superior to them all and can overrule them.However although in legal sovereignty (technically) terms Westminster is superior but in real political terms to what extent are they really able to overrule the Scottish parliament.

Question 22

Parliament’s accountability

Answer 22

The executive is accountable to parliament-parliament can question them over things like policies,investigate them and maybe even try and remove them from power through a vote of no confidence or through a general election.

Question 23

parliament is omincompetent in the following ways-1

Answer 23

This means it’s all powerful(nothing is more powerful than it both in the past and in the further).In practical terms parliament can make or break any law and it cannot bind to its successors or bound by predecessors example there is no law that can be made in the parliament of today that can’t be undone by the parliament of the future including things likes the HRA or Brexit.

Question 24

parliament is omnicompetent in the following ways-2/3

Answer 24

• It also has full control of the political system.

- It can amend anything as long as there is a majority in the house of commons.

Question 25

Backbenchers-1/2

Answer 25

Their mps elected by each of their constituencies

-In theory they can act as they want and vote however they want.however most of them vote with their parties but technically they are independent and can vote as they please.

Question 26

Backbenchers 3/4

Answer 26

• They question the executive at pmqs
• Can influence and amend legislation
• And overly they represent their constituencies.They can raise your issues in parliament.You can contact them through emails,etc