Parliament

Question 1

What are the statistics relating to division of seats and population?

Answer 1

England: 533: 51 million: 96,400.
Northern Ireland: 18: 2 million: 111.111.
Scotland: 59: 5 million: 84,700.
Wales:40: 3 million: 75,000.

Question 2

What is the House of Commons known as?

Answer 2

‘The lower house’

Question 3

What is the structure of the House of Commons?

Answer 3

650 members of Parliament: Elected from constituencies throughout the UK.

Candidates: For such elections are selected by committees drawn from local constituency parties.

Frontbench MPs: government ministers, senior and junior plus leading spokespersons from opposition parties.

Backbench MPs: All those MPs who are not frontbenchers.

Select committees: Permanent committees of backbench MPs elected by all the members of parliament.

Legislative committees: Temporary committees which scrutinize proposed legislation and propose amendments to improve the legislation.

Party whips: Senior members of parliament whose role is to keep party discipline.

The speaker: He or she is elected by Members of parliament.

Question 4

What is the structure of the house of Lords?

Answer 4

Hereditary peers: They have inherited the title from their father and will pass their peerage on to their sons. There are normally 92 of these peers.

Life peers: Appointed for life by party leaders and an appointments commission, they do not pass on their title onto their children. These are a mixture of former politicians and civil servants and prominent citizens.

Archbishops and bishops: There are 26 of these.

The Lord Speaker: He or she presides over debates in the house and maintains discipline.

Question 5

What do the members of parliament do?

Answer 5

• All sit for a constituency.
• Members of parliament who aren’t members of the government or leadership of their party are back benchers.
• They virtually all represent a party.
• A candidate will win a parliamentary seat if he or she wins the most votes in a general or by election.
• Members of parliament enjoy parliamentary privilege.

Question 6

What is parliamentary privilege?

Answer 6

An ancient principle that protects members of parliament from external pressure and specifically means they cannot be prosecuted or sued for anything they may say in the house of Commons. it also implies that the monarch can never interfere with the work of UK parliament.

Question 7

Who are some famous peers?

Answer 7

Lord Adonis: Crossbencher, transport and education.
Lord Winston: Labour, infertility and medical ethics.
Lord Dannatt: Crossbencher, military issues.
Baroness Chakrabarti: labour, human rights.
Baroness Warsi: Conservative, race relations.

Question 8

What are the functions of the House of Commons?

Answer 8

Legitimacy: The formal process of making proposed laws legitimate by granting consent.
Accountability: Sees the Commons acting on behalf of the people.
Scrutiny: Any proposed legislation is examined by MPs.
Constituency work: MPs are expected to ensure that the interests of their constituencies are protected.
Representation of interests: Groups of MPs seek to protect sections of society’s interests.
National debate: MPs have opportunities to debate such issues.

Question 9

What are the functions of the House of Lords?

Answer 9

Revising: The Lords scrutinises legislation carefully.
Delaying: The Lords cannot veto a piece of legislation but they can force the government to think again for a year .
Secondary legislation: The Lords spends its greater available time checking that regulation within minor laws is acceptable.
National debate: Shared with the House of Commons.

Question 10

What are the powers of the House of Commons?

Answer 10

The House of Commons has the power to:

• Approve or reject proposed legislation.
• Dismiss a government through a vote of no confidence.
• Order ministers to answer questions on the floor of the house, in select committee or writing.
• Amend legislation.
• Order debates on important national issues or in a crisis or emergency.
• Introduce matters of concern to an MP in a ten-minute rule debate or an adjournment debate.

Question 11

What are the powers of the house of Lords?

Answer 11

The House of Lords has the power to:

• Delay the passage of legislation for at least a year.
• Amend legislation, though such amendments may be overturned in the House of Commons.
• Order government ministers to answer questions on government policies and decisions.
• Debate issues of great national concern.

Question 12

What are the key distinctions between the House of Commons and the House of Lords?

Answer 12

The key distinctions are as follows:

• The House of Commons can veto proposed legislation whereas the Lords can only delay legislation for a year.
• The House of Commons can amend legislation whereas the Lords can only propose amendments which may be rejected by the House of Commons.
• The House of Commons can call ministers and government representatives to account in select committees. No such committees exist in the House of Lords.
• The House of Commons can dismiss a government by passing a vote of no confidence. The Lords cannot do this.
• In general terms, the Commons has democratic legitimacy while the Lords has no such legitimacy.

Question 13

What are the debates about parliamentary powers?

Answer 13

Holding government to account:

• The select committees are increasingly significant. Ministers must still face questioning in both houses.
• MPs still lack expertise knowledge, research back-up and time to investigate government thoroughly.

Providing democratic legitimacy:

• The UK’s system is stable with widespread consent.
• The House of Lords cannot provide this as it is neither elected nor accountable.

Scrutinising legislation:

• The House of Lords does an increasingly effective job, often improving legislation and blocking unfair or discriminatory aspects of proposals.
• As legislative comittees in the Commons are whipped, their scrutinising function is largely ineffective.

Controlling government power:

• Increasingly, both houses are checking the power of government.
• The power of prime ministerial patronage and control by party whips still mean that many MPs are unwilling to challenge government.

Representing constituents:

• This is an acknowledged strength of the Westminster system.
• It is absent in the House of lords.

Question 14

The reform of Parliament.

Answer 14

The House of commons:

• There is little enthusiasm for reform in the House of Commons in the future. However, a number of proposals have been presented or are actually planned. Among them are these:
• The size of the Commons is being reduced.
• There have been calls for the departmental select committees to have the power to scrutinise legislation before it is debated in the chamber.
• Many MPs would like to see more opportunities to examine secondary legislation.
• The key potential reform would be a change in the electoral system to one which is more proportional.

Question 15

The House of Lords.

Answer 15

All-appointed:

• People with special experience and expertise could be recruited into the legislative process.
• The political make-up of an appointed body could be manuiplulated to act as a counterbalance to the government’s house of Commons majority.
• Without the need to seek re-election, members would be more indepently minded.
• It would avoid the possibility of the same party controlling both houses.

All elected:

• An elected second chamber would be wholly democratic.
• If elected by some kind of proportional representation, it would prevent a government having too much power.
• Under PR, smaller parties and independent members would gain representation, they cannot win through first past the post in the House of commons.
• Members of the second chamber would be property accountable.

Part elected part appointed:

• Such a second chamber could enjoy the advantages of both alternatives. It would increase its legitimacy but retain the services of expert-appointed peers.
• It may only be that such a compromise is the only one acceptable to MPs and peers of all parties.

Question 16

The nature of parliamentary bills.

Answer 16

Types of legislation:

Public bills: These aare bills presented by the government. They are expected to pass successfully into law.

Primary legislation: These are major pieces of legislation either changing the law or granting powers to subsidiary bodies and individuals to make secondary legislation.

Secondary legislation: These are usually described as ministerial orders. Under powers granted in primary legislation, ministers or other bodies may make minor regulations. Most such orders are not debated in Parliament, but parliament has the option of vetoing such legislation.

Private members’ bills:
MPs may enter a ballot allowing five of them each year to present their own proposed piece of legislation. These rarely pass into law unless they recieve the support of government. There is usually not enough parliamentary time to consider them.

Private bills: Such bills are presented by individuals or organisations outside government and Parliament. They apply to parliament for permission to take certain actions which are currently forbidden. They go through a slightly simplified form of parliamentary procedure and are rarely refused.

Question 17

What is the legislative process of the House of Commons?

Answer 17

The key stages in processing a bill into law are as follows:
First reading: MPs are informed about the bill or proposed legislation but it is not debated at this stage.

Second reading: The main debate on the bill. If it is passed, it will move to detailed scrutiny.

Committee stage: The bill committee considers the bill line by line and propose amedments.

Report stage: The bill is debated again, with all the passed amendments included

Third reading: A final debate and a last opportunity to block the legislation.

Passage to other house: Most bills are first presented in the House of commons so they next pass to the House of Lords.

Same procedures: Except that the Lords scrutinises with a comittee of the whole house.

Royal assent: This signifies the formal passage of the bill into law.

Question 18

The legislative process: the House of lords.

Answer 18

The following are features of legislation in the House of Lords:

• The House of Lords is subject to the 1911 and 1949 parliament acts.
• These acts mean the Lords can only delay the passage of legislation for one year.
• The 1911 Act also means that the Lords has no legisative control over financial matters.
• The House of Lords is subject to an unwritten constitutional convention - the Salisbury convention.
• The Salisbury convention dating back to the 1940s means that the Lords cannot obstruct any proposed legislation that was contained in the governing party’s last election campaign.
• The legislative procedure in the House of Lords is the same as in the House of commons, with one main exception.
• The exception is that in the comittee stage in the Lords, all peers are entitled to attend and vote. In the Commons, this is done by a comittee of nominated MPs.

Question 19

The role and significance of backbench MPs.

Answer 19

The main roles played by MPs in the House of Commons are:

• Taking part in debates on legislation abd voting in divisions.
• Speaking in general debates on government business.
• Speaking in backbench debates when national or constituency interests can be aired.
• Scrutising proposed legislation at a comittee stage.
• Possibly being a member of a House of Commons select comittee.
• Active membership of a campaign comittee of MPs on a particular issue.
• Taking part in fact-finding missions.

Question 20

What is a select comittee and what do they do?

Answer 20

Select comitee: A permanent comitee of backbench MPs which has a specific task, mainly to call government to account, but other select committees have different parliamentary roles.

Question 21

What do they do?

Answer 21

They call government to account.

Question 22

Who are the public accounts comittee?

Answer 22

The PAC’s characteristics are as follows:

• It scrutinises value for money of public spending and generally holds the government and its civil servants to account for the delivery of public services.
• Its chair is always a member of the main opposition party.
• The chair has a great prestige, not to mention a greater salary than other MPs.
• The chair and members are elected by all MPs and so are not controlled by party leadrers.
• Its members despite party supporters, always tend to act independently.
• Its reports are often unainimous in their conclusions, so it stands above party politics.
• It has a high profile in the media.

Question 23

What characteristics do these commitees have?

Answer 23

• There are 19 such comittees each investigating the work of a government department.
• They scrutinise the work of each department in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, fairness and value for money.
• The members are elected by MPs from the whole house.

Question 24

What are some important departmental select committmee reports?

Answer 24

Work and Pensions 2016: Into the collapse of British home stores and the loss of mich of the employees’ pension fund.
The company was reported to the Pensions regulator.

Business, innovation and Skills, 2016: Into alleged bad working practices at Sports Direct. The company was forced to pay compensation to its workers for paying below minimum wage.

Treasury, 2015: Into proposals for stricter regulation of the banking sector. Insisted that the government should implement the recommendations of the Parliamentary comission on Banking standards.

Defence, 2014: Into the circumstances when the UK should make military interventions in world conflicts. Amomg many recommendations, urged the government to consider legislation about whether Parliament should control major armed interventions.

Home affairs, 2012: Into the Independent police complaints comission’s role in the investigation into the 1997 Hillsborough disaster. The IPPC is investigating the Hillsborough disaster following the 2016 inquest.

Question 25

What are two other select committees?

Answer 25

The Liason committee and the Backbench Business commiteee.

Question 26

What is the role of the opposition?

Answer 26

The general term opposition refers to the following features:

• All MPs and peers who are not members of the governing party may be described as opposition MPs and peers.
• The official opposition is the second largest party in the House of Commons.
• The leader of that party is described as leader of the opposition.
• The leader of the opposition has special privileges notably to speak in debates and to take the main roles at Prime Minister’s questions.
• The leader of the opposition takes part in ceremonial state occasions and usually meets visiting dignitaries and heads of state.

Question 27

What does the role of the opposition include?

Answer 27

• Forcing the government to explain aand justify its policies and decisions.
• Highlighting the shortcomings of the way the government is running the country.
• Presenting alternative proposals to those of the government if appropiate.
• Making itself ready to be an alternative government if the current government is defeated at the next general election.