Parliament and The Executive

Question 1

What is Parliamentary Privilege? Why is it important? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 1

Parliamentary Privilege is the freedom of speech granted to all Parliamentarians when in either House. Protects them from claims of libel for comments made in Parliament.

Question 2

How can Backbench MPs hold the Government to account? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 2

Backbench MPs can hold government to account by presenting views of constituents to government, by questioning ministers in questioning sessions or urgent questions, can rebel against the government, suggest amendments in public bill committees.

Question 3

How does the Backbench Business committee hold government to account? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 3

The Backbench Business Committee is a cross-party committee which is given a certain period of time in which they are permitted to control the activity of the HoC, such as the topic of debate.

Question 4

How have the powers of Backbenchers been limited? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 4

The powers of Backbenchers have been limited due to the increased power of party whips, securing loyalty at votes. This has reduced Backbench rebellions. Furthermore, fear of having the whip removed has done this. Public Bill Committees are also whipped.

Question 5

When were Select Committees Introduced and what is their role? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 5

Select Committees were introduced in 1979 under Thatcher, with their role being to scrutinise the policy, administration, spending and actions of government departments.

Question 6

What is the composition of a Select Committee like? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 6

Select Committees are made up of a minimum of 11 MPs, with the percentage of MPs from each party broadly representative of their makeup in the Commons.

Question 7

Why are Select Committees important? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 7

Select Committees are important as they decide what areas of a department will be investigated, who to summon as witnesses and what evidence should be gathered. They also scrutinise some legislation and experienced members can command major influence.

Question 8

How has the importance of Select Committees been mitigated? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 8

Many members of Committees are drawn from the governing party meaning they have a reduced incentive for scrutiny. They cover a small range of topics and avoid long term investigations. Members also don’t regularly attend.

Question 9

What percentage of Select Committee decisions are accepted by Government? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 9

Only 40% of Select Committee decisions are actually accepted by Governmment.

Question 10

What examples are there of Select Committees? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 10

Current Select Committees include the Home Affairs Select Committee, Public Accounts Committee and the Treasury Committee.

Question 11

How are Opposition Parties able to control the debate in the Commons? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 11

Opposition Parties are granted 20 days of debate in the Commons every year, with 17 of these days at the disposal of the Official Opposition.

Question 12

Why are Opposition Debates limited in their effectiveness and scrutiny of governments? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 12

Opposition Debates have little significance as any votes are symbolic, with no legally binding status on Government. They do not lead to legislative change.

Question 13

What is ‘short money’? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 13

Short money is money paid by the government to the opposition parties to fund them, as well as to fund the Leader of the Opposition’s office for policy research.

Question 14

What are the benefits of PMQs? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 14

PMQs attracts considerable press coverage, with the PM obliged to answer questions on a wide range of topics posed to them by MPs.

Question 15

What criticisms are there of PMQs? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 15

PMQs is often seen as a media event only, with the atmosphere giving more information about the personality of the PM or the Leader of the Opposition rather than informing about government/opposition policy. Can also be scripted and pre-planned in terms of questions.

Question 16

How can ministerial questioning be seen as more effective than PMQs? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 16

Ministerial questioning can be seen as more effective as questions can be submitted prior to the session, meaning detailed answers can be given to questions and better answers given about government policy. Also, reduced media focus increases quality of the debate.

Question 17

Summarise the roles of MPs. What different roles do they have? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 17

Debate/scrutinise/vote on legislation, listen to grievances/opinions of constituents, sit on Select Committees, sit on Public Bill Committees, debate national interests, research issues, represents issues/interests, HOLD GOVT/MINISTERS TO ACCOUNT.

Question 18

What successes are there of MPs fulfilling their roles? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 18

Strongly represent the interests of local areas through the constituency model, scrutinise the work of ministers and debate to hold actions of government to account, infrequently rebel against government to express opposition to a proposal.

Question 19

What failures are there of MPs fulfilling their roles? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 19

MPs often tend to vote on Party Lines and rarely defy whips, struggle to create legislation if on the backbenches, MPs frequently neglect attending debates, some neglect the views of their constituents.

Question 20

Summarise the roles that ALL peers undertake? What different roles do they have? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 20

All peers debate national issues, scrutinise secondary legislation, vote on primary legislation and hold government to account through representatives in the Lords.

Question 21

What are the 3 different types of peer in terms of engagement? Describe what their roles might be as a peer - Parliament and Executive

Answer 21

Non working peers hold the title of a Peer but do not engage in Parliamentary business.
Part-time politicians are rarely attached to a party but attend sporadically and sometimes participate in voting.
Working peers are members and often representatives of a party in the Lords. Can even be members of the government.

Question 22

What successes are there of Peers fulfilling their roles? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 22

Peers provide crucial scrutiny of secondary legislation, provide a balanced outlook on government action as no party has a Lords majority, means legislation requires dual support. A necessary check on the powers of the Commons.

Question 23

What failures are there of Peers fulfilling their roles/the Lords fulfilling its role? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 23

Most Peers fail to participate, cannot oppose manifesto commitments, can be bypassed by the Parliament Act 1949, Peers are unaccountable for their actions to any local constituents (they have none), unelected so have no democratic legitimacy.

Question 24

Summarise the roles of opposition parties. What roles do they have? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 24

Force government to explain and justify their actions, highlight the shortcomings of government, make alternative proposals to those made by the government, act as a ‘government in waiting’ should they need to replace the current government after an election.

Question 25

What successes are there of Opposition Parties in fulfilling their roles? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 25

An opposition can effectively hold government to account through questioning, as well as presenting alternative policies to current government (especially effective prior to elections). Presents alternative leadership to current government.

Question 26

What failures are there of opposition parties in fulfilling their roles? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 26

If the opposition have a small number of seats in the Commons, they may struggle to oppose the Government, if that specific Government has a large majority. If they aren’t in power, it is due to public decision.

Question 27

What is the role of the Public Accounts Committee? How do its members act with regards to party allegiance? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 27

The Public Accounts Committee examines public finances and collection of tax. Investigates the allocation of money to services. Its members scrutinise government impartially, regardless of any party allegiance.

Question 28

What successes have the Public Accounts Committee had in holding the government to account? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 28

2020: Launched an investigation into the aims of HS2, and the fact that its timeline and success was assessed in an overly ambitious way. Not deemed value for money.
2020: Launched enquiry into the allocation of money from the Towns Fund, aiming to boost prosperity in failing towns. Had been alleged that some of this allocation was politically motivated.

Question 29

What successes have Departmental Select Committees had in holding the government to account? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 29

2012 - Home Affairs DSC investigated the running of investigations of the Hillsborough Disaster, ordering a new Public Enquiry.
2016 - Work and Pensions DSC investigated the BHS collapse and the loss of pension funds for workers.

Question 30

What is the role of the Liason Committee? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 30

The Liason Committee is where the heads of all 19 DSCs form a committee, which has the opportunity twice a year to scrutinise the actions of the Prime Minister and of the government.

Question 31

What success was there of the Liason Committee regarding Syria? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 31

The Liason Committee was able to heavily scrutinise the government in 2016 over their use of drone strikes in Syria.

Question 32

What successes have the Backbench Business Committee had in holding government to account? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 32

Recently held debates over the Human Rights situation against Muslim minorities in China, which led to government sanctions, as well as on the effects of football and other activity on increasing the chance of dementia.

Question 33

What evidence is there of Parliament’s effectiveness in holding government to account? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 33

Weekly questioning sessions of ministers and Secretaries of State allow scrutiny of government actions, PMQs is a weekly scrutiny session, select committees scrutinise the actions and running of government departments.

Question 34

What evidence is there of Parliament’s limited effectiveness at holding government to account? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 34

PMQs is largely a media event based on the personality of leaders rather than scrutiny, time taken by MPs to research and inform themselves is inadequate, MPs often waste questions, many recent announcements on coronavirus have been done in media briefings rather than in Parliament.

Question 35

What evidence is there of the effectiveness of Parliament in providing democratic legitimacy of government actions? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 35

The representatives in the HoC are democratically elected and given a clear mandate by constituents to legitimise/vote against the actions of government, the Lords cannot vote against manifesto commitments, Parliament has recently seen widespread support for coronavirus measures.

Question 36

What evidence is there of the limited effectiveness of Parliament in legitimising government actions? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 36

HoL cannot provide democratic legitimacy as it is appointed, not elected, during the pandemic the Government largely acted through emergency powers before the passage of the Coronavirus Act (no legitimation by MPs).

Question 37

What evidence is there of the effectiveness of Parliament in scrutinising and improving legislation? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 37

The HoL provides scrutiny of secondary legislation (to prevent discrimination) which is not done by the HoC, Public Bill Committees suggest amendments and scrutinise legislation to improve it.

Question 38

What evidence is there of limited effectiveness of Parliament in scrutinising and improving legislation? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 38

Legislative committees are whipped and always have a majority in favour of the main HoC party so there is little chance of major legislative change, amendments proposed by the Lords can be bypassed by the Commons through the Parliament Acts.

Question 39

How many times has the Lords defeated the Government between 2019 and 2021? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 39

Both houses have the power to vote legislation down if they disagree with it, from 2019 to 2021, there were 114 defeats of Government in the HoL, including over the Internal Markets Bill.

Question 40

What evidence is there of limited effectiveness of Parliament in preventing government overreach? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 40

The power of patronage by a PM and control by party whips over both chambers in voting on legislation means most MPs do not challenge the government when voting. Andrew Jones has never voted against the Conservative Party in Parliament.

Question 41

What evidence is there of effectiveness of Parliament in representing constituents? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 41

The constituency based system of the HoC is seen as a major strength of our Parliament, meaning local people can have grievances raised with government at questioning sessions.

Question 42

What evidence is there of limited effectiveness of Parliament in representing constituents? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 42

Lords are not accountable/responsible to local people, there is no universal amount of time an MP spends in their constituency, with Cabinet ministers having considerably less time to represent their constituents than backbenchers. There is also no fully effective way of removing an MP.

Question 43

What evidence is there of the effectiveness of Parliament in representing broader society? Specific Names: - Parliament and Executive

Answer 43

Many MPs are supporters/representatives of pressure groups in Parliament, as are Peers. This allows a wider representation of views and opinions.
Marsha de Cordova supports the plight of blind people in Parliament, while Johnny Mercer represents veterans’ interests.

Question 44

What evidence is there of limited effectiveness of Parliament in representing broader society? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 44

When clash of party loyalty and group interests arises, party loyalty usually prevails to the detriment of group interests, meaning that the strength of representation is mitigated.

Question 45

What evidence is there of effectiveness/lack of effectiveness of Parliament in recruiting MPs for ministerial roles? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 45

Work in Parliament trains potential ministers well in the ways of government, as well as provides vital experience for aspirational MPs.
Effective Parliamentary work doesn’t guarantee effective running of a state department.

Question 46

When did the largest defeat of a sitting government take place? What was the margin of defeat and over what issue? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 46

The largest defeat of a sitting government took place in January 2019, with a defeat of 230 votes for the May Government over her Brexit deal.

Question 47

What are examples of Lords appointments prompted by the Executive? - Parliament and Executive

Answer 47

The Lords has recently seen the appointments Jo Johnson, Ken Clarke, Ian Botham and Kate Hoey by the Executive.

Question 48

What example is there of the opposition using a proposed motion to hold the government to account? - Parliament and the Executive

Answer 48

In 2022, the Labour Party proposed a motion to hold an inquiry into the Partygate scandal that eventually passed unopposed through the Commons, prompting a Parliamentary investigation into whether Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament.