Parliament and the executive Flashcards
The effectiveness of parliament to hold the executive to account.
- Role of select comittees
- Effectivness of parliamentary questions
- Backbenchers
The effectivness of parliament holding the executive to account - Role of select comittees THEY ARE EFFECTIVE
- Select comittees sctrutinise the policies and actions of government, conducting detailed examinations of controversial issues.
ESSAY E.G In 2022 the house of commons passed a motion tabled by the leader of the labour party calling for Boris to be investigated by the Privileges Committee for having potentialy mislead parliament. - Since 2002, the Prime Minister has appeared twice yearly before the Liaison Committee to answer questions on the Government’s current policies.
The Wright Reforms have seen committee chairs elected by the whole house and select committee members elected by their own party. This has substantially loosened the grip of the whips over Select Committee and increased their independence. For example, the DCMS Select Committee were critical of the Government’s Online Safety Bill saying it did not go far enough to tackle harmful content online – despite a Conservative majority on the Committee.
Foreign affairs committee inquiry 2016 into UKs intervention in Libya concluded that the UKs 2011 actions in Lyba were ill-concieved and that David Cameron was ultimately responsible.
Health select comitte 2011 helped pursuade the government into making significant changes to the Health and social care bill.
The effectivness of parliament holding the executive to account - Role of select comittees THEY ARE NOT EFFECTIVE
- A government with a majority in the commons will also have a majotiy in the committees.
- Ministers and civil servants may not provide much infomation when questioned and access to documents may be denied.
- Governments can ignore recconmendations.
66% of all select comitte rulings/recommendations are ignored. - Select Committee Chairs are still paid significantly less than even the most junior minister (a Parliamentary-UnderSecretary), so, for salary and career minded MPs, it still might be much more tempting to follow the party whip and
work to get a ministerial position.
The effectivness of parliament holding the executive to account - Question time THEY ARE EFFECTIVE
- The most prominent example of question time is Prime Ministers Questions which takes place at 12.00 on Wednesdays. PMQs sees the PM questioned by Government and Opposition MPs with the Leader of the Opposition given six questions.
- Urgent questions can be used to ask a department in the executive a question, which is given to in advance annd encourage detailed responses.
- Since the speakership of John Bercow, the use of Urgent Questions and Emergency Debates has grown significantly. Under the previous speaker there were 0.02 UQs a day but under Bercow this rose to 0.88 per day with the Speaker ensuring the Government could be held to account immediately.
- Emergency Debate granted to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. During this debate the Government were asked detailed questions about what they were doing to support the Ukrainian Government.
- PMQ may be largely ineffective but there are othere forms of questions.
The effectivness of parliament holding the executive to account - Question time THEY ARE NOT EFFECTIVE
- Increase in people trying to score political points instead of effective scrutiny, the executive Diana Johnson’s recent question that over ‘partygate’ saying that the PM ‘was trying to convince people he was a stupid rather than dishonest’.
- The questions are often political and therefore so are the answers.
- ‘Punch and Judy’ Politics
The effectivness of parliament holding the executive to account - Backbenchers THEY ARE EFFECTIVE
- The executive control over the parliamentary timetable has been weakened by the creation of the backbench business committee and the greater use of urgent questions.
- Backbench MPs provide greater checks on government policy than in the past, with increased incidents of rebellion as a constraint on government action.
ESSAY E.G Rebellion by 139 MPs on the 2003 vote on the invasion of Iraq was the largest by a governing bodies party in politics - 2010-2015 was the most rebellious parliament of the postwar era, coalition Mps rebelled in 35% of votes.
ESSAY E.G The BBBC provides them with an opportunity to put forward ideas for debate that might provide scrutiny of the government. For example, on the 21st of April 2022 a backbench debate was held on the two-child limit for universal credit – a key government policy.
The effectiveness of parliament holding the executive to account - Backbenchers THEY ARE NOT EFFECTIVE
- This can be seen in the very low number of Private Members Bills that become Acts of Parliament. For example, since 2015 only 16.2% of Acts started as Private Members Bills. This often means backbench MPs do not introduce bills because they will pass but instead because they might push forward the issue in the media. This allows for governments to dominate legislation and only bills with government support really make it through parliament.
ESSAY E.G As evidence of this since 2015 Christopher Chope has introduced 119 PMBs of which none have become law.
Whips can force backbenchers to comply with government legislation, if they refuse then they risk getting the whip reduced.
ESSAY E.G The government won a key vote on a Fracking Bill in October 2022, there were accusations that Tory MPs had been ‘bullied and manhandled’ into voting for the government motion.
Evaluate whether the executive can exert its dominance over parliament.
Power of the whips/Government majority
Failure of scrutiny
opposition party and the house of lords
Evaluate whether the executive can exert its dominance over parliament - Government majority and power of the whips THEY CAN
- If the government has a majority in parliament then this means that they can easily dominate the legislator and pass legislation.
- Furthermore governments can absorb dissent within their own ranks.
This is becoming increasingly likely.
ESSAY E.G Tony Blair had a majority of 167 at the 2001 general election, the Blair government survived large rebellions over Iraq.
The first time the Blair government suffered defeat was within months after the 2005 general election where the majority was cut to only 65.
ESSAY E.G Boris government had a majority of 80 and as a result only suffered defeat 3 times between 2019 and 2022.
Whips can enforce majority governments
E.G Liz Truss Fracking Bill
Evaluate whether the executive can exert its dominance over parliament - Government majority and power of the whips THEY CANT
- A government does not always have a majority and therefore will find it difficult to dominate the legislative.
ESSAY E.G
Boris government suffered 12 defeats from July 2019 up until the general election a they did not have a majority.
Theresa may had a minority government between 2017 and 2019 and was defeated a total of 33 times.
Whips are only going to be successful if they are taken seriously by all MPs, if all MPs ignore the whip the they will be unable to enforce the removal.
ESSAY E.G 21 Tory rebels had the whips removed after they voted with the opposition party in 2019 to block Boris no-deal Brexit and leave the EU.
Evaluate whether the executive can exert its dominance over parliament - Opposition party and the house of lords THEY CAN
- Opposition party get only 20 opposition days a year. There is very limited time for them to set the motion and timetable.
- Executive can dominate the agenda. It controls the legislative timetable, it control government debate on bills, this means most bills are proposed by the government.
Lords can only delay bills, and suggest amendments, which can then be overturned by the Commons. ESSAY E.G in 2017 the Lords attempted to add amendments onto the passing of the Article 50 bill to trigger the exit from the EU which guaranteed EU citizens’ rights for those already living in the UK. This was swiftly overturned by the Commons.
- Commons is democratically legitimate- they have more of a right to challenge government
- Committees and PMQs are used to scrutinise government- the Prime Minister does not appear before the Lords to be challenged.
Evaluate whether the executive can exert its dominance over parliament - Opposition party and the house of lords they CANT
Opposition days can provide a platform for opposition parties to limit the control of the executive.
ESSAY E.G An Opposition Day motion from Labour, calling on the government to cancel a planned £20-per-week cut in Universal Credit, was passed 253–0
Although the executive dominate the timetable there are other routes that bills can originate from.
- Private member bills
House of lords reform act 2014
Since the removal of most of the hereditary peers in 1999 the Lords have become more effective and more assertive, government defeats in the Lords have become more frequent.
E.G Blocked the Hunting Act 2004 and the Sexual Offences Act 2000
ESSAY E.G
The Blair and Brown labour governments were blocked more than 400 times in the House of Lords.
Nearly 90 times in 2002-03
Never succeeded 20 between 1990 and 1997
Extent to which the legislative have increased their power over the executive
- Wright reforms
- Increased proactive nature of the lords.
- Increased govt consultation of parliament over prerogative powers, such as military action.
Extent to which the legislative have increased their power over the executive - Wright reforms
- Wright reforms 2010
- Chairs of departmental and similar select committees should be directly elected by secret ballot of the House.
- Established the backbench business committee.
- The executive control over the parliamentary timetable has been weakened by the creation of the backbench business committee and the greater use of urgent questions.
- Backbench MPs provide greater checks on government policy than in the past, with increased incidents of rebellion as a constraint on government action.
ESSAY E.G MPs rebelled in 35% of votes between 2010-2015, that was the highest number recorded as of 2015.
ESSAY E.G The BBBC provides them with an opportunity to put forward ideas for debate that might provide scrutiny of the government. For example, on the 21st of April 2022 a backbench debate was held on the two-child limit for universal credit – a key government policy.
ESSAY E.G The Wright Reforms have seen committee chairs elected by the whole house and select committee members elected by their own party. This has substantially loosened the grip of the whips over Select Committee and increased their independence. For example, the DCMS Select Committee were critical of the Government’s Online Safety Bill saying it did not go far enough to tackle harmful content online – despite a Conservative majority on the Committee.
Extent to which the legislative have NOT increased their power over the executive - Wright reforms
- This can be seen in the very low number of Private Members Bills that become Acts of Parliament. For example, since 2015 only 16.2% of Acts started as Private Members Bills. This often means backbench MPs do not introduce bills because they will pass but instead because they might push forward the issue in the media. This allows for governments to dominate legislation and only bills with government support really make it through parliament.
ESSAY E.G As evidence of this since 2015 Christopher Chope has introduced 119 PMBs of which none have become law.
Whips can force backbenchers to comply with government legislation, if they refuse then they risk getting the whip reduced.
ESSAY E.G The government won a key vote on a Fracking Bill in October 2022, there were accusations that Tory MPs had been ‘bullied and manhandled’ into voting for the government motion.
