The Structure And Role Of Parliament: The Structure And Functions Of Parliament

Question 1

Who was the last member if the Lords to become prime minister?

Answer 1

Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963, who resigned his peerage, and fought and won a by-election so that he could sit in the Commons as an MP instead of remaining in the Lords

Question 2

How many members of parliament (MPs), compromise Commons?

Answer 2

650

Question 3

Why were there plans to reduce the number of MPs to 600 in 2010, though are yet to be implemented?

Answer 3

After the MPs expense scandal

Question 4

What is the average amount of voters an MP represents?

Answer 4

68,000 voters

Question 5

What is the most populated electorate seat?

Answer 5

Isle of Wight, 113,000 voters

Question 6

What is the least populated electorate seat?

Answer 6

Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles)

Question 7

What are some independent MPs, who did they represent and when were they elected to the Commons?

Answer 7

Martin Bell, who represented Tatton from 1997 to 2001, Dr Richard Taylor, who represented Wyre Forest from 2001 to 2010 for the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern party and Lady Sylvia Hermon who sat as an Independent Unionist MP from 2010 until her retirement in 2019

Question 8

What does the House of Lords consists of?

Answer 8

Unelected members and lacks any democratic mandate

Question 9

What are life peers and when where they made possible?

Answer 9

They are peers in Lords who are appointed to a peerage for their lifetime, or retirement, and was made possible by the Life Peerage Act 1958

Question 10

How many hereditary peers are there?

Answer 10

92

Question 11

What are hereditary peers?

Answer 11

Peers in Lords, who get there position from their family, though when there is a vacant among this group, there is a ensuing ‘election’ has a very small and select electorate

Question 12

How many sitting members are currently in Lords in 2023?

Answer 12

777

Question 13

What are life and hereditary peers also known as?

Answer 13

Lords temporal

Question 14

How many Church of England bishops sit in Lords?

Answer 14

26

Question 15

How are bishops selected to sit in Lords?

Answer 15

Mostly based on seniority, although the bishops of five dioceses automatically get a seat

Question 16

What are Church of England bishops who sit in Lords collectively known as?

Answer 16

Lords spiritual

Question 17

What is the Prime Minister?

Answer 17

The leader of the largest single party, who is elected to commons

Question 18

What is the speaker?

Answer 18

The chair, trying to keep order and ensuring as many MPs as possible from across the range of parties are allowed to speak in debates and administer rules of the House of Commons and can suspend MPs who break these rules for varying period of time

Question 19

Who is the current speaker?

Answer 19

Sir Lindsay Hoyle

Question 20

What is an example of the speaker suspending an MP for breaking the rules?

Answer 20

The, then-speaker, John Bercow suspended overran Labour MO Dennis Skinner for calling then prime minister David Cameron ‘Dodgy Dave’

Question 21

How is the speaker elected to their position?

Answer 21

They are elected speaker by a series of ballots voted for their fellow MPs

Question 22

Who is the current leader of the House of Commons?

Answer 22

Penny Mordaunt

Question 23

What does the leader of the House of Commons do?

Answer 23

They are essentially that of the government’s business manager and seek from the executive’s view that Commons runs smoothly and schedules business in commons for the week and usually provisional business for the week after

Question 24

What is the job of a whip?

Answer 24

They are in charge of party discipline, with them issuing a set of instructions n how their party’s MPs should vote, a ‘three-line whip’ indicates the party leadership expects all its MPs to turn up a vote a certain way

Question 25

What is an example of the whip withdrawing an MP, basically suspending them from the party, as a temporary punishment?

Answer 25

In 2012 Nadine Dorries appeared on ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!’ without informing party leadership first, leading to her temporary suspension for 7 weeks

Question 26

What is an example of the whip being withdrawn for political disloyalty?

Answer 26

In September 2019, Boris Johnson removed the whip from 21 Tory rebels who defied the whips’ instructions not to support a motion to take control of parliamentary business from the government during the Brexit bill saga

Question 27

What are the frontbenchers?

Answer 27

This term is applied to members go government who are in the cabinet or shadow cabinet

Question 28

What are backbenchers?

Answer 28

These are ordinary MPs who are not part of the cabinet or shadow cabinet

Question 29

What are the 4 functions of parliament?

Answer 29

Legislative, Representative, Scrutiny and Deliberative