the constitution

Question 1

when was the magna Carter? what did it do?

Answer 1

1215- signed by king John, established rule of law should apply to all, including the monarch. also established habeas corpus

Question 2

when was the bill of rights? what did it do?

Answer 2

1689- invited William of orange and Mary to England.
It established freedom of speech for MPs, regular free and fair elections as well as for the monarch to always adhere to the law.

Question 3

when was the Act of settlement? what was it?

Answer 3

1701- stated that the monarch should be protestant and cleared up succession to throne

Question 4

what was the Act of union? when was it?

Answer 4

1707- incorporated Scotland into Great Britain, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Question 5

what were the parliament acts of 1911 and 1949?

Answer 5

1911: lords lost its power to regulate public finance and had delaying power for 2 years
1949: reduced delaying period to 1 year

Question 6

what was the European communities act? when was it?

Answer 6

1972: brought the UK into the European community which became the EU

Question 7

what does codified mean?

Answer 7

contained in a single document

Question 8

what does entrenched mean?

Answer 8

constitutional rules are well protected and difficult to change

Question 9

what does unitary mean?

Answer 9

political power is centred in one single place (Westminster)

Question 10

what is the nature of the UK Constitution?

Answer 10

uncodified, unentrenched and unitary

Question 11

what does quasi-federal mean?

Answer 11

a system that acts federal but isn’t actually federal as the power can still be taken back

Question 12

what are the sources of the UK constitution?

Answer 12

statute law
conventions: Salisbury convention 
authoritative works: erskin may and A.V. Dicey 
common law: murder laws 
treaties: Maastricht Treaty

Question 13

what did the House of Lords act 1999 do?

Answer 13

reduced number of hereditary peers to 92

Question 14

what new labour reforms were made to the House of Commons?

Answer 14

2004: chairs of committees raise in salary to give greater status
2010: system of electing members of select committees by whole chamber of commons
2010: backbench business committee established

Question 15

what was the human rights act 1998?

Answer 15

brought the European convention of human rights into uk law, binding on all public bodies. however parliament remained sovereign

Question 16

what was the freedom of information act 2000?

Answer 16

any documents held by a public body about a citizen could be requested, security services exempt

Question 17

what electoral reform did the liberal democrats propose?

Answer 17

in 2011 held AV referendum which came back no

Question 18

what did the constitutional reform act 2005 do?

Answer 18

abolished the law lords and established the independent Supreme Court

Question 19

what did the fixed term parliaments act 2011 do?

Answer 19

took away PMs power to call election by setting them every 5 years

Question 20

when would a snap election occur?

Answer 20

if a vote of no confidence was passed with 2/3 majority

Question 21

when has the fixed term parliaments act been undermined?

Answer 21

in April 2017 Theresa may announced snap election as she achieved 2/3 majority to do so in the commons
also in 2019 election was triggered

Question 22

what did the Recall of MPs Act 2015 do? what is an example?

Answer 22

gave constituents a chance to recall an MP if a petition with at least 10% of constituents signatures
e.g: 2019 two MPs lost seats as result of recall elections

Question 23

what did Scotland Act 1998 do?

Answer 23

in 1997 held referendum of Scottish devolution.
the act granted devolution of powers to Scotland e.g health, education, policing varying rate of income tax by 3%
implemented with AMS electoral system

Question 24

what did Government of Wales act 1998 do?

Answer 24

referendum on welsh devolution held in 1997.

Act granted devolution to wales to set up Welsh assembly, did not have power to pass primary laws or financial

Question 25

what did the Good Friday Agreement 1998 do?

Answer 25

restored devolved powers for: education, health, transport, policing.
however in 2002 Westminster dissolved Assembly until 2007

Question 26

what was the Scottish independence referendum result in 2014?

Answer 26

55.3% against independence

Question 27

what did the Scotland Act 2016 do?

Answer 27

granted further devolution to Scotland on areas such as; law making, welfare, control over income tax and control over some business tax

Question 28

what did the Government of Wales Act 2014 do?

Answer 28

granted further devolution over: taxes and have limited power to borrow money to invest in housing

Question 29

what did the Government of Wales Act 2017 do?

Answer 29

the ability to vary income tax by 10p 
greater freedom in borrowing 
greater legislative ability 
Welsh based taxes 
renamed welsh assembly the Welsh parliament

Question 30

what did the House of Lords acts 2014 and 2015 do?

Answer 30

2014: allowed members of the lords to resign or retire or to be removed for prolonged non attendance
2015: allowed lords to remove peer who had breached code of conduct

Question 31

what is English does for English laws?

Answer 31

if a bill only concerned England and Wales then the bill could be vetoed by MPs from that region

Question 32

when were elected mayors introduced into London?

Answer 32

2000 following a referendum, London mayor granted limited power

Question 33

how did the coalition reform local government?

Answer 33

introduced elected city mayors with devolved powers in areas such as Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool.

Question 34

What failures were there of regional English devolution by Labour?

Answer 34

Labour attempted to establish Regional Development Associations with similar devolved powers to devolved assemblies in home nations. However, after a referendum in the North East failed on low turnout, the additional devolution was scrapped.

Question 35

When was Northern Irish power sharing dissolved from-until? Why?

Answer 35

Northern Irish power sharing was dissolved in 2002 until 2007 following the breakdown of relations between the 2 governing parties in the country.

Question 36

What failures were there of regional English devolution by Labour?

Answer 36

Labour attempted to establish Regional Development Associations with similar devolved powers to devolved assemblies in home nations. However, after a referendum in the North East failed on low turnout, the additional devolution was scrapped.

Question 37

How did Labour increase representation of views within Parliament? When did this happen?

Answer 37

Labour established the Backbench Business Committee, which was allocated time inside Parliament to decide what issues they would debate. This was introduced in 2010.

Question 38

how was the fixed term parliaments act undermined by Johnson?

Answer 38

the fixed term parliaments act was repealed by conservative government in 2022