What are the main powers of the executive?

Question 1

Royal Prerogative:

1) Who did these powers belong to, and who do they belong to now?

Answer 1

1) They used to belong to the Crown, but have been transferred to the prime minister or other ministers.

Question 2

1) What are the main prerogative powers?

Answer 2

1) > Award honours
> Declare war and authorise the use of the armed forces
> Sign treaties
> Take action to maintain order in the case of an emergency
> Grant and withdraw passports
> Grant legal pardons
> Appoint ministers and senior office holders

Question 3

1) Which governments wanted to place some prerogative powers under parliamentary scrutiny?

Answer 3

1) Gordon Brown’s government and the coalition government.

Question 4

1) Which two powers have been abolished or reformed?

2) How is approval given, in the case of emergency military intervention being needed.

Answer 4

1) > The 2011 Fixed Term Parliaments Act, removed the right of the Prime Minister to determine the date of general elections. Theresa May still managed to call an early election, with the support of the majority of MPs.
> Since the Iraq war and the air strikes in Syria, it has been agreed that military action requires parliamentary approval.
2) Government can deploy troops and then secure approval.

Question 5

Initiation of legislation:

1) Who controls most of the parliamentary time available for legislation?

Answer 5

1) The executive, and then there are 20 opposition days, 13 days for private member’s bills, and a variable amount for the Backbench Business Committee.

Question 6

1) Where do the most important bills usually go.

Answer 6

1) Commons

Question 7

1) What can the government rely on, if it has a majority?

2) Can rebellions occur?

Answer 7

1) On the party whipping system, and the power of patronage to push through its programme.
2) Yes, but it’s rare for a government to be defeated on the second or third reading of a bill

Question 8

1) How does the executive use the guillotine and the programming motion, to ensure the passage of legislation?
2) What happened to Cameron’s attempt at using the guillotine in the Lords?
3) What changed in 2002?

Answer 8

1) > The Guillotine: Its sets a limit on the amount of time MPs can spend debating, a particular clause of a bill.
> Programming Motion: It was introduced by the Blair government, and it allows the executive to set out in advance the time limits for each stage in the passage of a bill.
2) He attempted to use it on the debate about redrawing constituency boundaries, however he abandoned this in 2011, following opposition.
3) It became possible for the government to carry over uncompleted legislation, from one session to another, without having to start from the beginning.

Question 9

Secondary legislation:

1) What is secondary legislation?
2) What is the most common form of secondary legislation?
3) What do Statutory Instruments enable government to do?

Answer 9

1) This is law that is made without passing a new act of parliament. Government uses powers created by an earlier act.
2) Statutory Instruments
3) Modify or repeal existing legislation without introducing a new bill.

Question 10

1) What do the critics of statutory instruments say?

Answer 10

1) It can be used to make controversial decisions, such as abolishing maintenance grants in 2016, and allowing fracking in national parks.