Parliament

Question 1

What is the British legislature (law-making body) made up of?

Answer 1

House of Commons and House of Lords

Question 2

What is the House of Commons?

Answer 2

the primary chamber of the UK legislature, directly elected by voters.

Question 3

what is the House of Lords?

Answer 3

the second chamber of the UK legislature, not directly elected by voters.

Question 4

what are backbenchers?

Answer 4

MPs who do not have ministerial or shadow-ministerial positions. They occupy the benches in the debating chamber behind the leaders. Their main role is to represent the constituencies.

Question 5

what is the opposition?

Answer 5

the official opposition is usually the party with the second-largest number of seats in the Commons. Its role is to criticise the government and to oppose legislative proposals.

Question 6

how are MPs in the commons selected?

Answer 6

The members of the House of Commons are selected through election to represent single-member constituencies. First-past-the-post system is used. There are 650 constituencies. These elections happen at regular intervals, every 5 years. By-elections happen in a constituency if an MP passes away.

Question 7

How many members are in the House of Lords?

Answer 7

There is no limit on the amount of memberships in the House of Lords. As of today, there are 778 members in the House of Lords. The three main categories of peers are hereditary peers, life peers and 26 ‘Lords Spiritual’.

Question 8

what are the main functions of parliament?

Answer 8

Passing legislation

Scrutiny of the executive (including debating)

Providing ministers

Commons additionally have the role of representing the electorate.

Question 9

How do the houses of commons and lords go about passing legislation?

Answer 9

Parliament is the supreme legislative body in the UK, with the authority to pass or amend laws.

The House of Commons has the power to consent to taxation because its members are elected and represent the public

the Lords cannot interfere with ‘money’ bills. The lords can only amend non-financial legislation.

Most legislations are initiated by the government Parliament reacts to the measures given by the executive (ministers) rather than proposing its measures. it is difficult for parliament to defeat or significantly amend legislation- to do this they must have solid opposition from the opposition parties and rebels on the government side- For example: David Cameron’s defeat in March 2016 on plans to extend Sunday trading.

To minimise adversary by opposition parties constantly confronting the government, there are the party whips. Party whips are responsible for maintaining party discipline, they do this by making sure MPs attend parliamentary votes, imposing sanctions, giving necessary suspensions and more.

Question 10

How does parliament perform its scrutiny function?

Answer 10

parliament has the responsibility to hold the government to account for its actions and expose its errors. Ministers have a responsibility to explain and defend policies made by them.

Questions to ministers, which may call for oral or written answers. PMQs are weekly question-and-answer sessions in the chamber of the Commons that have been criticised for being unduly theatrical and largely a point-scoring exercise dominated by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.

Question 11

what do select committees do?

Answer 11

investigate and report on the activities of government departments.

Question 12

what do debates do?

Answer 12

gives power to MPs to shape the agenda and voice their views in terms of policies and legislation.

Question 13

how does parliament provide ministers?

Answer 13

Parliament acts as a recruiting ground for future ministers as ministers must sit in one of the two houses ( Whips make recommendations to the PM for candidates). This gives the PM power of patronage.

Question 14

how does Parliament represent the electorate

Answer 14

The Commons has a representative function since it is the elected house. The Lords is
representative only in the sense that it contains people with a wide range of professional
Backgrounds. Lords is not demographically diverse- more than half of its members are over 70, ¾ are male and around 5% are from ethnic minorities.

Question 15

how effective is parliament at representing the electorate?

Answer 15

One concern is that an MP’s loyalty to their party, reinforced by the desire to win promotion to the government, may come into conflict with the need to represent a constituency.

Another issue is that the Commons is still not truly representative of society as a whole particularly women

29 per cent of MPs elected in May 2015 were female – an increase on the 2010 figure, which was 22 per cent – compared to 51 per cent of the UK population.

Question 16

what are the exclusive powers of the HoC

Answer 16

To give consent to taxation and public expenditure.
The Lords can only debate on money bills but cannot interfere with it.
Commons can exercise power in a situation known as confidence and supply.
Confidence and supply: a type of informal coalition agreement sometimes used in the event of a hung parliament where the minority partner agrees to vote with the government on key issues. It can occur in the event of minority governments.

Eg. The Conservative Party’s agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party following the general election in June 2017 was a confidence and supply agreement because the conservative party was 8 seats short of a majority. In return, the smaller party receives concessions.

Eg. in 1997-78, James Callaghan’s minority labour government concluded the ‘Lib-Lab Pact’ with the smaller Liberal Party; confidence and supply.

Question 17

what are the main powers of the House of Lords?

Answer 17

Parliament Act (1911) says that the Lords have no right to delay money bills and the power to veto non-financial bills is replaced by a power of delay lasting two parliamentary sessions (two years).

Salisbury Convention (1945) said Lords cannot affect bills mentioned in the manifesto of the winning party.

The Lords is mainly a revising chamber; proposing amendments to government legislation.

The Lords can delay non-financial legislation for one.

If the government were to prolong the life of parliament longer than its legal maximum term of five years, the Lords are legally empowered to force it to hold a general election.

Question 18

what happened in 1999 for the HoL

Answer 18

the removal of most hereditary peers meant the HoL are now dominated by life peers, known for their expertise. This increased the HoL’s legitimacy. The removal of hereditary peers meant the conservative party’s dominance in the HoL ended.

Question 19

what are crossbenchers?

Answer 19

Crossbenchers play an important role in holding the government to account as neutral figures.
they are not affiliated to a single political party

Question 20

how does the HoC maintain its supremacy?

Answer 20

When clashes between the HoC and HoL occur, the government makes use of its majority in the commons to overturn critical lords’ amendments.
Eg. in February 2012, the coalition government rejected seven amendments to its welfare reform and work bill, arguing that only the commons was entitled to make decisions with large financial implications.

When a bill goes back and forth between the HoC and the HoL it is known as ‘parliamentary ping-pong’, the government can use the Parliament Act to force a bill through.
Eg. the lords’ defeat of the Cameron government’s plans to cut tax credits, October 2015.

Question 21

different types of law?

Answer 21

A legislative bill is a proposal for a new law, or change to an existing law.
An act of parliament is a bill that has completed all its stages in parliament andx become law.

Question 22

what is a government bill or public bill?

Answer 22

most important type of proposal that can be debated in parliament. These are brought forward by government ministers to change public policy.

Question 23

what is a private bill?

Answer 23

much less common; sponsored by an organisation such as a company or local authority to change a law that affects the organisation. A group affected by the bill has the right to petition parliament against it.

Question 24

what is a hybrid bill?

Answer 24

has the characteristics of of both public and private bill. It proposes changes to law that would affect the general public, but certain groups in particular.

Question 25

what is a private member’s bill

Answer 25

Affects the whole population introduced by an individual MP or backbencher. They are less likely to become law than government bills and they depend on the time being found for them to complete all the stages in the Commons.

Question 26

how do bills become law?

Answer 26

Origin: a bill begins as green paper (a document which lays out options for legislation and inviting consultation) or white paper (a more detailed statement of the government’s intentions)
First reading (in the commons in this example): the bill is made available to MPs but is not debated at this stage.
Second reading: principle of the bill is debated and a vote may be taken if contested.
Committee stage: bill is scrutinised in detail by a public bill committee. Amendments are made at this stage if the government is prepared to accept them.
Report stage: whole house considered the amendments made at the committee stage and math reject or accept them.
Third reading: amended bill is debated and voted on by the whole house.
HoL stages: bill goes through the same stages again but in the lords with the exception of the committee stage which is carried out by the whole house. The lords can propose further amendments and the commons can decide where to accept or reject these. The bill can go back and forth between the commons and lords for up to a year before it becomes law, in a process called ‘parliamentary ping-pong’
Royal assent: the monarch signs the bill making it law. This stage is just a formality as the monarch cannot get involved in politics by refusing to sign a bill.

Question 27

what is the role and significance of backbenchers?

Answer 27

The backbench business committee can pick the topic of debate on 35 days of each parliamentary session.

These debates are usually in response to e-petitions and subjects that would not have been debated otherwise.

Rise in the number of backbench rebellions.

Rise in the use of ‘urgent questions’ which allows an MP to raise questions on important matters that require an immediate answer.

Speaker John Bercow allowed 3547 ‘urgent questions’ in 2009-13 while speaker Michael Martin 2000-09 allowed only 1234 in a much longer time.

MPs can use various methods to draw attention to their interests but that doesn’t mean they would succeed in getting any action taken.

Public bill committees mean MPs can propose amendments to legislation.

However, if the government has a majority on these committees it can just take its amendments and ignore amendments made by opposition MPs.

The power of patronage and ties of party loyalty, reinforced by party whips remain important factors in the commons.

Question 28

what do select commitees do?

Answer 28

Select committees scrutinise the policy, administration and spending of each government department.

Question 29

what does the liaison committee do?

Answer 29

the liaison committee (consists of the chairs of all the committees and questions the PM twice a year on government policy) and the committee on standards (regulates MPs conduct, including their financial affairs)

Each departmental committee has atleast 11 members.

Question 30

what do non-departmental select committees do?

Answer 30

Non-departmental select committees: the public accounts committee (examines government expenditure, seeking to ensure the value for money is being obtained)

Question 31

what did the reform in 2010 do for the selection of chair committees?

Answer 31

Following a reform in 2010, chairs of committees are now elected by fellow MPs rather than elected by party whips.

Members of committees are chosen by secret ballot.

Committee hearings are televised and reported.

Their work is respected as it is evidence-based.

Question 32

what does committee work include?

Answer 32

Committee work includes scrutinises legislation and pre-appointment hearings- the treasury select committee has the right to veto the chancellor of exchequer’s choice for head of office

Long-serving members of committees gain more knowledge of a particular policy area than a minister, who can stay in a government department for up to 2-3 years.

Select committees can have a direct influence on government policy.

The majority of select committee members will be drawn from the governing party.

Resources for committees are limited.

MPs do not attend select committee meetings regularly.

The government accepts an estimated 40% of select committees’ recommendations; these being minor changes of policy.

Committees’ power to summon witnesses is considerable but not unlimited.

Question 33

what is the role and significance of the opposition?

Answer 33

The opposition is not in a strong position to hold the government to account. They make little impression on the general public.

They take the leading role in responding to the government programme, set out in the queen’s speech, and replies to the chancellor of the exchequer’s budget speech.

Opposition parties are allocated 20 days a year to propose subjects for debate.
Of these 20 days, 17 of them are given to the official opposition (the largest opposition party) and 3 to the second-largest opposition party.

These days allow opposition parties to register their views on aspects of government policy.

Assistance is available to opposition parties in the form of ‘short money’ because opposition parties do not have access to support from the civil service.

‘Short money’ is used for policy research and the salaries of staff for the opposition parties in parliament.

Question 34

what are PMQs?

Answer 34

PMQs is a half-hour session that happens every Wednesday in the commons.

PMQs attract considerable attention in the press and television reporting due to their theatrical nature.

People can criticise PMQs can it can seem more about point scoring than government policy.

A better scrutiny method would be ministerial questions and answers, ministers answer questions about their departments.

Answers from ministers tend to be more detailed as ministers are given notice of oral questions so they can prepare their answers.

MPs can also submit questions to be answered by the civil service.