Parliment Flashcards
All about UK Parliament?
Created due to Magna Carta
650 MPs
Includes HOL HoC and monarch
What is parliament?
Our Uk parliament is made up of 2 chambers making it a Bicameral legislature.
What are the 2 chambers in parliment?
House of Lords- upper house
House of Commons- dominant
Positives of our parliament being bicameral?
-The upper house (HoL) can do checks and balances for greater scrutiny and revisions of legislature. e.g. go home theresa may or hostile environment david cameron
-Representation of different interests
Negatives of our parliament being bicameral?
-Can create gridlock
-Unelected upper house causing frustrate the will of democracy
In the house of commons where does the government and opposition sit?
Government sit on the right and opposition on the left
What are the people at the front called and who are they in the house of commons?
Frontbenchers, these are the ministers
The opposition do have front benchers but they are called shadow ministers
Who are backbenchers and what do they do?
Backbenchers are people that sit on the back benches who are MPs but have no ministerial responsibility’s
What is the leader of the house of commons?
Someone who determines what happens and when it will happen. This means they will be responsible for delivery of the government’s legislative programme and chairs the Parliamentary Business and Legislation Cabinet Committee
Works closely with the governments whip
Who are the government whip?
Keep all the MPs in order, do this by convincing MPs to vote in the same way as the party leaders
What’s a three line whip?
Indicates MPs to vote a certain way that aligns with the party leader if they don’t they have the authority to sacked or fired
What happens if MP have their whip withdrawn, give an example?
They will be suspended from the party
Example is Boris Johnsons government the whip removed 21 tory rebels who didn’t support the motion to take control of businesses
Who is the prime minister?
Ultimately the most important person within parliament, head of the largest party and have control over business and outcomes within the commons
E.g. Rishi Sunak
Who is the speaker?
The chair of commons who tries to keep order and ensure many MPs from a range of parties get the oppertunity to talk within debatr
Powers of the speaker?
Suspend MPs and administer the rules e.g. Dodgy Dave scandal
Who is the current speaker of the HoC?
Lindsay Hoyle, won after a vote.
Micheal Martin used to be a speaker but was forced to resign due to his suspected favouritism towards remain MPs
What are the 3 different peers within the house of lords?
*Peer- member of HoL
*Hereditary Peer- A member since 1999, selected from those who inherited their title
*Life Peer- member of HoL whos been appointed to the chan=mber for the rest of their lifetime
What happend to hereditary peers in the house of lord act in 1999?
Due to Tony Blairs New labour government all but 92 peers got removed before this their were 750 h peers
Now we have elected hereditary peers
What was the life peerage act 1959?
Gave the PM right to appoint lords to be in the chamber for life, but tjis title cant be inhereted
What did the life pperage act 1959 and the house of lord act 1999 do?
Increased diversity and professionalism
What did the parliment act of 1911 and 1999 do?
Lords cant veto or block anything that ame from the commons, only power they have is to delay for 2 years in 1911 but in 1999 it changed to 1
They can propose ammendments to the bill but commons have the upost power to decide what will happen
Examples of unsuccsesful bills stoped due to the parlimet act of 1911 and 1999?
War crime act 1991, Sexual offence amendments 2000, Huntington act 2004 and EU parliment elections act 1999
Financial privledges of the commons vs lords
Lords cannot delay or amend a money bill (national taxation, loans or public money)
-Apropriation bill passed by commons but has to be purley formal by lords
- Commons can claim financial privelage when lords are passed amendments by legislation eith finance
Commons VS Lords on the sailsbury convention?
HoL cany vote against a bill in a governments manifesto
Due to Lords Sailsbury conservative Mp
Reasonable time convention- Lords?
gov need legaslative proposals at reasonable time aserll as gov having significant control over commons time table- different for lords
Convention stating that lords should consider all govs buisness in a reasonable time, cant delibretky overlook or delay bill as one has to be passed by the end of the session
60 day limit
Assertive house of lords?
Can block things dacing gov to turn to parliment act, gov defetes now frequent in the lords e.g. brown and blair in commons 7 times 400 ties in HoL
Theirs now party balance- no party has a majority of lords in common so now equal balance
Debabtes about relative powers?
Commons- primary and input legitimacy (composition of institution’s and responsive citizen concerns as a result of representation of the peoplr)
Lords ony have outputs (quality and effectivness if instetutions)
Whats a bill in parliment?
A legislative proposal in parliment, when legislative porcess has been completed its then an act of parliment
Whats green paper?
setting up options for legislations
Whats white paper?
explains objective of government policys
Where do bills originate from?
The house of commons
What are public bills?
Government bills (manifesto suppoeted by the government abd irivetably passeb my laws
Private member bills- individual mps try to pass laws but need to be aprooved by government which is very difficult to do
What are private bills?
Private bill- specific and affect certain individual or organisation and not the genral public
How are laws passed
Acroynm- People from sheffield can run through oughtabridge
Stage1- Preparotory stage
Stage2- First reading
Stage3- Second reading
Stage4- Commite stage
Stage5- Report stage
Stage6- Third reading
Stage7- The other place
Stage 1 of the legaslative process (preparotory stage)
Before the bill is passed, provisions outlines in white and green paper.
Stage 2 of the legaslative process (first reading)
Bill introduced to paliment through formal reading
Stage 3 of the legaslative process (second reading)
First substancial change. A full debate considering the principle of the bill.
First stage at which bill can be defeted
Stage 4 of the legaslative process (committe stage)
details of the bill considered one by one.
done by public comitee (18mps)
most amendments made by this stage and new provisions included
Stage 5 of the legaslative process (report stage)
The committes report back to the full house of commons on any changes maded
Commons may amend or revert changes now
Stage 6 of the legaslative process (third reading)
Replicates the 2nd chamber in that its debated in full chamber
Overview of bill
No amendments made at this stage, very unusal to be defeted at this time
Stage 7 of the legaslative process (the other stage)
Major bills considered first by the commons but other bills may happen at the lords
Once veiwed by one chamber bill goes through some process in the other place before finaly going to monarch for royal assent
Bills done by backbenchers ?
Ballot
10 minute rule
Presentation
What is a ballot?
20 MPs drawn into a ballot, drawn on 13 fridays
MPs who are drawn first have the ability to express opinion to the government
However alot of the time can be unsucsessfull as the MPs can run out of time
What is the 10 minute rule bill?
Mps have 10 minutes to make a speach on new bill or exisiting legislature, very few bills do get passed. MPs use this to draw attention to a particular issue
What is a presentation?
MPs present bills on floor by intorducing name but no further debate
Examples of private member bills that have passed?
Sex offences act
European election act
Ways in which back bench M.Ps can influence policy’s?
Vote on legislation
Proposing legislation
Speaking in debate
asking qs of ministers
informal lobbying with ministers
serving on committees
