UK Politics - Parliament Flashcards
(23 cards)
House of Commons
- UK Parliament is a bicameral parliament - meaning it is made up of two chambers (HoL and HoC)
- the Commons is the elected chamber, with 650 MPs
- there is a Speaker who chairs proceedings (even though they are an MP that’s elected by the rest of the House, they must remain impartial)
- the treasury benches are where the government sits (PM, Cabinet, government ministers + backbenchers)
- opposition benches are where non-gov MPs sit (at the front is opposition leader, shadow cabinet with opposition backbenchers behind)
- both parties have whips who seek to ensure their party’s MPs vote the correct way
- independent MPs sit on opposition benches
Functions of the House of Commons
¬ Legislation
- the Commons has a key role in debating, scrutinising, amending and voting on legislation
- has a lesser role in creating legislation (small # of bills are written and proposed by MPs rather than by the executive)
- the Commons can stop government legislation altogether (rarely happens)
¬ Debating
- legislation is debated at second reading
- issues of the days & of interest to constituents are also debated such as during adjournment debates & emergency debates
¬ Representation
- MPs are elected to represent their constituents
- they have surgeries in their constituencies and raise constituency issues in questions and debates
- MPs follow the Burkean or trustee model of representation
¬ Scrutiny & Accountability
- Parliament scrutinises legislation and the business of government, especially through Public Bill Committees and Select Committees
- MPs hold the government to account in PMQs and MQs
¬ Legitimation
- the democratic accountability of the Commons means that the people give their consent to laws
- Effectiveness of the Commons
LEGISLATION
¬ Effective
- examples of Commons stopping of significantly amending legislation
- e.g., Commons voted against Blair’s plans to extend the detention of terrorist suspects to 90 days
¬ Ineffective
- governments usually enjoy a majority in the Commons and are therefore rarely defeated
- e.g., Blair didn’t lose a vote between 1997 and 2005
- the coalition only lost 2 2010-2015
DEBATING
¬ Effective
- Wright reforms have given more power to backbenchers to influence the parliamentary agenda
- increased number of debates on current and pressing issues
¬ Ineffective
- debating time strictly limited because of time required for government business
- whips exercise significant control
- Effectiveness of the Commons
REPRESENTATION
¬ Effective
- MPs raise constituent concerns through written and oral questions
- can use adjournment debates and private members bills to address constituency concerns
- MPs face scrutiny from constituents between elections, through surgeries, correspondence and social media
¬ Ineffective
- although people vote for a specific candidate in general elections, the focus is largely on the party
- FPTP means that MPs are often elected by less than half of their constituents
- Parliament is not descriptively (or socially) representative of the UK
- 2017: 442 / 650 MPs = men, 52 / 650 = BAME
SCRUTINY & ACCOUNTABILITY
¬ Effective
- select committees can spend significant time on scrutiny of government actions and public bill committees are able to amend and improve legislation
¬ Ineffective
- oral questions in the House are often described as “pantomime” and rarely challenge the government or seriously hold it to account
Powers of the House of Commons
- it can initiate, amend and reject (veto) legislation
- it can even reject legislation from the governing party’s manifesto
- government’s budget is subject to approval by the Commons
- can dismiss a government, by passing a motion of no-confidence - very rare
- last occurrence was 1979
House of Lords
- unelected chamber
- life peers (appointed for life) - 676 in 2019
- hereditary peers (inherit their title - greatly reduced in 1999) - fixed at 92
- lords spiritual (senior clergy from Church of England) - fixed at 26
- like the HoC, the HoL has a speaker, government + opposition benches and whips
- has a number of crossbencher (182 in 2019) who are independent
Functions of House of Lords
- has many of the same functions as Commons, other than that of representation (Lords are unelected) or legitimation (democratically illegitimate)
- legislation - sometimes referred to as revising chamber
- debate - Lords debate legislation and current issues
- scrutiny & accountability - Lords scrutinises legislation as a whole house as opposed to committees like Commons
- does have select committees and some committees that include members of both chambers
- whilst Lords can’t ask questions of PM in chamber, there are minister’s questions (like in Commons) where ministers who are members of HoL must answer questions on behalf of government
- Effectiveness of Lords
LEGISLATION
¬ Effective
- government legislative is defeated in the Lords more often than in Commons - lack of clear majority
- e.g., government suffered defeats in Lords during passing of EU Withdrawal Bill 2018
- Lords are more likely to rebel against the whip than MPs, and presence of crossbenchers means that the outcome of votes is less predictable
¬ Ineffective
- has no legislative veto, can only delay and can be over-ridden (Parliament Acts 1911 + 1949)
- significant areas of legislation cannot be obstructed by Lords - Salisbury Convention (Lords can’t obstruct measures promised in governing party’s manifesto)
- Effectiveness of Lords
DEBATE
¬ Effective
- Lords has less crowded timetable than Commons - can spend more time on debates
- many peers have been appointed due to being experts in particular field, others have held high office - quality of debate is often high
¬ Ineffective
- sometimes accused of being a “talking shop” - long debates but to no useful or practical end
- despite there being a lot of Lords, the chamber is often poorly attended (even more than Commons) - members only really attend debates of their interest
SCRUTINY & ACCOUNTABILITY
¬ Effective
- high levels of expertise can lead to forensic and effective questioning
¬ Ineffective
- most senior ministers are in the Commons, so only junior ministers are held to account in the Lords
Powers of the House of Lords
- has fewer powers than HoC
- delay legislation for up to 1 year (Parliament Act 1949) - has no veto
- amend legislation - Lord amendments then have to go back to Commons for approval - ping-pong
- scrutinise the executive through select committees
- there are several restrictions on its powers
Commons v Lords
¬ House of Commons
- elected
- can reject any legislation
- can amend legislation
- gov’s budget requires approval
- highly partisan & adversarial
- provides gov with legitimacy and a mandate
¬ House of Lords
- unelected; largely appointed
- cannot obstruct manifesto commitments
- can only delay legislation for up to a year (no veto)
- amendments must go back to Commons for approval
- doesn’t vote on “money bills”
- more independent of party - less adversarial
- no democratic mandate
- Legislative process
- The King’s Speech - gov’s legislative programme outlined
- First Reading - bill is introduced in HoC
- Second Reading - full debate and vote in the HoC
- Committee Stage - Public Bill Committees scrutinise the bill
- Report Stage & third reading - amendments are proposed and debated + final vote
- Legislative process
- House of Lords - bill goes through same stages in HoL
If no amendments suggested, goes straight to Royal Assent however if they are… - Back to Commons - Commons can accept changes from Lords or send it back (ping-pong - can last years)
- Royal Assent - monarch signs the bill at which point it becomes an Act of Parliament and the law
- Salisbury Convention
¬ Background
- when Attlee became PM with Labour landslide - only 16 Labour-supporting Lords out of 761 peers
- Labour had clear mandate to implement 1945 manifesto - Lords had no mandate to block it
- Lord Salisbury (Tory leader in Lords) set out principle that Lords wouldn’t obstruct measures set out in gov’s manifesto
- this has become part of UK constitution (ex of a convention)
- however didn’t apply 2010-2015 as Coalition followed ‘Coalition Agreement’ not one manifesto which had won a majority
- Salisbury Convention
¬ In practive
- Lords can propose reasoned amendments to gov bills at second reading, but not wrecking amendments that are designed to frustrate, reverse or destroy the bill
- some debate about whether the convention should apply to a minority gov, to a coalition agreement or at all since Lords reform of 1999
- Backbenchers
- MPs who don’t hold a position in government or as official spokesperson for opposition party
- usually vote with whip and support their party in votes
- usually loyal because…
elected on party manifesto
if ambitious, will wish to please PM or party leader to be promoted - have become increasingly rebellious - whilst gov defeats are infrequent, govs often accept amendments and take other action to avoid defeat
- Backbenchers
- have great powers since Wright Reforms 2010 - MPs choose select committee members
- Backbench Business Committee choose topics or debate (on 35 days of the year)
- Speaker Bercow was a champion of backbenchers’ rights - calling more to speak and ask questions
- MPs are protected by parliamentary privilege which means they are not subject to the laws of slander when speaking in chamber
- Select Committees
- exist in both chambers
- designed to allow for scrutiny of executive and broadly shadow gov departments
- e.g., Education Select Committee scrutinises Department fo Education
- Lords Committees tend to have broader focus
- also have committees that look across whole of gov business e.g., Public Accounts Committee
- Committee membership broadly reflects the composition of Commons - gov with majority will have majority in committees
- have the power to send for persons, papers and records
- Committee members become experts in the area, improving debates overall
- Select Committees
- questioning in Committees often forensic and sustained - witnesses can prepare but don’t know what they’ll be asked
- reports are often well-publicised. governments must respond - although do not have right to act on committee recommendations
- some high-profile inquiries and reports e.g., PAC confronting large companies e.g., Google, Amazon, that had avoided tax
- Liaison Committee is made up of all the HoC select committee chairs
- PM appears before the committee annually, and the rigorous and forensic questioning is a stark contrast with PMQs
Effectiveness of Select Committees
¬ Effective
- able to interrogate witnesses at considerable length with forensic questioning
- Select Committees provide alternative career path for politicians - committee chairs are well-paid
- become experts - improves questioning
- government MUST respond to reports
¬ Ineffective
- no legal power of summons - nobody is compelled to assist a select committee with inquiry (would be politically unwise for gov to not cooperate)
- gov has a majority in committees, so rarely challenges the government politically
- committees always seek to try and reach unanimous decision so findings tend to avoid controversy
- although gov must respond - doesn’t have to act
The Opposition
- all MPs not a part of the governing party (or parties - coalition) sit on opposition benches
- largest of these parties is His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition which acts as a government-in-waiting, shadowing the gov
- Leader of Opposition sits opposite the PM, surrounded by shadow cabinet and other shadow ministers
- when gov has small or no majority, the opposition is able to exercise more influence than when faced with a government with a large majority
- while oppositions rarely force defeats on governments, even minority governments, they can try to appeal to the public as an alternative
Ministers Questions
- ministers are compelled to come to the HoC and HoL for questioning by backbenchers
- there are regularly programmed times for questioning, and also the Speaker is able to grant an Urgent Question where the attendance of a relevant minister is demanded in relation to a serious issue of the day
- for MQs, the Secretary of State and a # of junior ministers reply to questioning both from backbenchers and from opposition spokespeople
- backbench MPs are unable to ask follow up questions
- for detailed responses, written questions are more effective than oral questions
Prime Minister’s Questions
- PMQs is the most high-profile event in the HoC calendar most weeks
- the chamber tends to be full and is broadcast live on TV on Wednesdays
- backbench MPs get to ask one question to the MP
- every other speaker is a gov MP - usually asked friendly or ‘planted’ questions - allows PM to make announcement or attack line on opposition
- opposition leaders get to ask more questions than backbenchers
- Leader of Official Opposition can build argument over their 6 questions
- PM prepares for PMQs with their team, has great deal more resources at disposal than backbenchers (rarely seriously challenged)
- can sometimes lead to policy changes (gov stopped using premium-rate # for Universal Credit queries after PMQ from Corbyn 2017)
- PMQs often dismissed as ‘political theatre’
