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SQE UK Con > PARLIAMENT > Flashcards

PARLIAMENT Flashcards

1
Q

composition fo Parliament

A
  1. House of Commons
  2. House of Lords
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2
Q

house of commons

A
  1. MPs who belong to the same political party as the government sit with the government (that is, with MPs who are ministers sitting on the front benches).
  2. The largest party not in government will form His Majesty’s
    Loyal Opposition, with the leader of the party becoming the
    Leader of the Opposition.
  3. The Leader of the Opposition is
    supported by the Shadow Cabinet, who will scrutinise their
    counterpart in the government. For example, the Shadow
    Foreign Secretary will debate and ask questions to the For-
    eign Secretary.
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3
Q

Elections

A

General elections are elections to the House of Commons.
The House of Lords is unelected.

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4
Q

Dissolution of Parliament

A

General elections are held 25 working days after Parliament is ‘dissolved’. Dissolution means that Parliament has, in es-
sence, ended. No more legislation can be passed, all com-
mittee inquiries stop, and all seats in the House of Commons are vacated, meaning that there no longer any MPs.

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5
Q

Process for Dissolution

A
  1. The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011 provided for fxed
    fve-year terms, meaning that the date of dissolution was
    fxed by law.
  2. . However, this was repealed by the Disso-lution and Calling of Parliaments Act 2022. Now, Parlia-
    ment is dissolved fve years after the date it frst meets, but it can be dissolved earlier by the Monarch exercising the royal prerogative. By constitutional convention, this
    happens only after a request from the Prime Minister
  3. Prime Minister will usually request a dissolution in the
    fourth or ffth year of a Parliament if their party have a large majority. The Prime Minister is also expected to im-mediately request that the Monarch dissolve Parliament if the government loses a vote of no confdence in the House of Commons.
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6
Q

Qualifcations for Membership

A

*Persons under the age of 18;
*Citizens of non-Commonwealth countries (this ban does
not include citizens of the Republic of Ireland, who are
allowed to become an MP if elected); and
*Members of the House of Lords.
*Members of the Judiciary, including High Court, Court of
Appeal, and Supreme Court judges;
*Civil servants;
*Members of the armed forces (British Army, Royal Navy,
and Royal Air Force);
*Members of a police force; and
*Members of parliaments or legislatures outside of the
Commonwealth or Ireland, including the European Parlia-
ment.

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7
Q

By-Elections

A

In between elections, seats can become vacant through the death or retirement of a member. This triggers a by-election
for that constituency to select a new member.

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8
Q

Recall of MPs Act 2015

A

If an MP has been:
*Convicted of an ofence and is sentenced to imprisonment;
*Suspended by the House of Commons for 10 days for
misconduct; or
*Found guilty of providing false or misleading information
in relation to their expenses,
The Speaker will notify the constituency. This triggers a
‘recall petition’ in the constituency. If more than 10% of the
electorate in that constituency sign the petition, then a
by-election is held.

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9
Q

House of Lords
There are currently around 800 members, each belong-
ing to one of the following four categories.

A

a.Hereditary Peers
b.Life Peers
c.Lords Spiritual
d.Law Lords

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10
Q

Hereditary Peers

A

Hereditary peers hold a title at the rank of a Duke, Earl, Vis-
count, or Baron.

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11
Q

Life Peers

A
  1. Life peers are appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the
    Prime Minister and are given the rank of Baron.
  2. By convention,appointments are made in approximate proportion to the shareof the vote each political party achieved at the previous general election.
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12
Q

Lords Spiritual

A

The most senior 26 bishops of the Church of England form
the Lords Spiritual.

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13
Q

The King’s Speech

A
  1. As noted previously, Parliament can last for fve years. This
    fve-year period is split into sessions, usually lasting 12
    months, starting each May. Each session is marked with the
    State Opening of Parliament, the centrepiece of which is the King’s Speech. The King reads out a speech prepared by the government outlining the government’s legislative proposals for the following session.
  2. A parliamentary session is signifcant because a bill must
    pass the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and
    receive the Royal Assent before the end of the session in
    which the bill is frst introduced into Parliament. Otherwise,
    the bill is lost, and the process will have to start again in the
    next session.
  3. The exception to this is when either the House of Commons or the House of Lords agrees to ‘carry-over’
    a bill from one session to the next. This means that, in sub-
    stance, the bill can resume in the new session from the last
    stage it completed in the last session
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14
Q

Prorogation

A

A session ends and the new one begins when the Mon-
arch, on the advice of the Prime Minister, exercises the royalprerogative power of prorogation.

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15
Q

Legislative Process

A
  1. First Reading
    2.Second Reading
    3.Committe Stage
    4.Report Stage
    5.Third Reading
    6.consideration of amendment
    7.royal assent

Usually, government bills are introduced
into the House of Commons frst, but uncontroversial bills are sometimes frst introduced into the House of Lords.

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16
Q

First Reading

A

The government publishes the text of the bill and
explanatory notes that outline the government’s intentions
behind the bill.

17
Q

Second Reading

A

The second reading is the frst opportunity for the principles
of the bill to be debated.

18
Q

Committee Stage

A

The committee stage is when the bill is scrutinised line by
line. MPs can table amendments to the bill. These are debat-
ed and, if approved, they will form part of the bill.
There are two main forms of committee:
1. Public Bill Committee
2. Committee of the Whole House

19
Q

Public Bill Committee

A

Between 16 and 30 MPs form a Public Bill Committee and
consider the bill. The political parties are represented in
proportion to their share of the seats in the main cham-
ber.

20
Q

Committee of the Whole House

A

Entirely uncontroversial or urgent bills, or bills of frst-
class constitutional importance are considered by all MPs
meeting in a Committee of the Whole House.

21
Q

Report Stage

A

The bill is received from the committee and is reconsidered
in the chamber. Further amendments can be made at this
point, but in the House of Commons, the Speaker is unlikely
to select for debate amendments that cover issues which
have already been debated in an earlier stage of the pro-
cess. Generally, this stage gives an opportunity for all MPs to raise concerns over matters of policy.

22
Q

Third Reading

A

The third reading is often quite brief and gives MPs or peers a fnal review of the bill before going to the other House
to start at frst reading.

23
Q

Consideration ofAmendments—‘Ping Pong’

A
  1. During its process through either House, most bills are
    amended, sometimes quite heavily.
  2. The amendments need
    to be considered in the House that frst considered the bill.
  3. If the amendments are accepted, then the bill can be sent
    to the Monarch for Royal Assent. If the amendments are not
    agreed, then they can be removed or counter-amendments
    can be sent to the second House. 4. The second House then
    has to consider whether to insist on their amendment, accept the counter-amendment, propose a compromise, or back down entirely. This process can be repeated between the Houses until the fnal text of the bill is agreed.
24
Q

Royal Assent

A

Once the bill has been approved by the House of Commons and the House of Lords, in order for it to become law, the
Monarch must grant the Royal Assent. This is seen as a for-
mality, because by constitutional convention, Royal Assent is always granted.

25
Q

Powers of House of Lords

A
  1. Generally, the House of Lords has the same powers as the
    House of Commons to pass legislation or to make amend-
    ments.
  2. However, in practice,
    these powers are restricted by a combination of political and legal rules, refecting the notion that the unelected House of Lords should not ultimately thwart the wishes of the elected House of Commons. This approach is refected in the follow-ing two rules, which limit the powers of the House of Lords.
    (1) The Salisbury Convention
    (2) SuspensoryVeto Under Parliament Acts 1911-1949
26
Q

The Salisbury Convention

A

If a government bill is implementing a commitment that
the party elected into government made in their manifes-
to, then the House of Lords will grant a second reading to
the bill as a matter of course and will not otherwise block
the legislation. The House of Lords reserve the right to
make amendments to the bill at later stages in the legis-
lative process.

27
Q

SuspensoryVeto Under Parliament Acts 1911-1949

A

If the House of Lords block a piece of legislation already
passed by the House of Commons, which is then rein-
troduced and passed by the House of Commons in the
next session of Parliament, only for the House of Lords to
block it again, the bill is sent to the Monarch for Royal As-
sent. This means that the House of Lords does not have
an absolute veto over legislation but, rather, merely a
‘suspensory veto’, in that they can only delay rather than
block legislation completely.

28
Q

Commencement

A

1, Once legislation has received Royal Assent, it will usually not come into force (meaning that it takes legal efect) immedi-
ately. Usually, the legislation will include a commencement
provision giving power to the government to bring the leg-
islation into force at a later date. These are known as com-
mencement orders or commencement regulations and are a type of secondary legislation

2, If there is no commencement provision, then the legislation will immediately take efect on being granted the Royal As-
sent. Under modern practice, this will be expressly stated in such legislation.

29
Q

Amendment, Repeal, and Sunset

A

Legislation usually takes efect for as long as it is on the stat-ute book. Parliament may amend the legislation at any time, or if it so chooses, it can repeal the legislation, meaning that it is no longer the law.
Sometimes, legislation may include a ‘sunset clause’, mean-
ing that some provisions or all of an Act expires on a certain date.

30
Q

Secondary Legislation

A

Secondary legislation is legislation made by the government
under the authority of an Act of Parliament. Secondary legisla-
tion is usually used to implement policies or provide the detailed regulations necessary for a government scheme to operate.

EXAMPLE
The government has decided to change the system of
welfare payments to unemployed people. Parliament has
passed an Act of Parliament giving the necessary legal basis for these changes. The Act of Parliament has given the gov-ernment power to make regulations setting out the criteria
to establish who is eligible for the beneft and the amount of the beneft.

31
Q
A
31
Q

Enactment of Secondary Legislation
There are two main procedures by which secondary legisla-
tion is made.

A

a.Negative Resolution Procedure
b.Affrmative Resolution Procedure

32
Q

Negative Resolution Procedure

A

A draft of the secondary legislation is laid (meaning published) before the House of Commons
and House of Lords. It will take efect on the date stated on
the draft unless, within 40 days of being laid, either House
votes in favour of rejecting the secondary legislation. If no
motion is passed, it becomes law. No amendments to the
draft can be made.

33
Q

Affrmative Resolution Procedure

A

A draft of the secondary
legislation is laid before both the House of Commons and
the House of Lords and both Houses must expressly vote in
favour of the secondary legislation for it to become efective.
In the House of Commons, the secondary legislation can
be debated in the chamber or by the Delegated Legislation
Committee. No amendments to the draft legislation can be
made by either House.
Note: The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 do not apply to sec-
ondary legislation, which means that the House of Lords are
free to block the legislation.

34
Q

‘Henry VIII Powers’

A

Henry VIII powers refer to powers granted to the government to amend primary legislation. In practice, these powers are
used to give the government power to make minor amend-
ments to legislation.

35
Q

Challenging Secondary Legislation in the
Courts

A

In substance, secondary legislation is made by the govern-
ment and not Parliament. This means that secondary legisla-
tion can be struck down by the courts if the secondary legis-
lation goes beyond the power granted to the government.

36
Q

PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE

A
  1. parliamentary privilege includes a rule that ensures the freedom of speech in Parliament
  2. In return for parliamentary privilege, Parliament exercises
    its freedom of speech with respect for the courts and the
    legal process. This is shown with the sub judicie rule, which
    requires that MPs and peers do not refer to cases which are
    currently before the courts during debates

1

37
Q

Exception to Parliament privilge—Use of Parliamentary Debates
to Aid Interpretation

A

It has been established that parliamentary privilege does not prevent the courts from referring to the ofcial record of de-
bates in Parliament to help interpret legislation as intended
by Parliament. However, courts should refer to debates only when the legislation is unclear,there is a statement from the minister which assists the court, and that statement is sufciently clear.

SQE UK Con (10 decks)

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