Week 5: Parliament

PARLIAMENT

learning objectives • Explain the main features of parliamentary government • Understand the powers and composition of the House of

Commons and the House of Lords • Understand the function of parliament and how well does it

perform them • Understand the role of an MP both in parliament and their

constituency

parliament

Bicameralism A political system, in which there are two chambers in the legislature. The lower house is usually elected in a general election and tends to be the dominant chamber. The upper house may be directly elected or indirectly elected (e.g. appointed by ministers), or a hybrid of both.

HOUSE OF COMMONS

house of commons • 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) • Each MP is elected is a single-member constituency by the

first-past-the-post electoral system • the governing party (or parties) sit on the benches to the

right of the speaker’s chair • members of opposition parties on the benches to its left

house of commons • The main opposition party appoints 'shadow ministers' to

confront their rivals • Ministers and shadow ministers are known as frontbenchers

because they occupy the benches closest to the floor of the chamber

• The majority of MPs have no ministerial or shadow ministerial posts and are known as backbenchers

Whips Each party appoints a number of MPs to act as whips: • Ensuring that MPs attend parliamentary divisions

(votes) • Issuing instructions on how MPs should vote • Enforcing discipline within the parliamentary party

The speaker • The speaker of the House of Commons proceeds over

debates in the chamber, selecting speakers and maintaining order

• The speaker is elected by MPs in a secret ballot • the speaker must give up his or her party affiliation and

is non-partisan

House of commons in numbers • there are 650 mps elected to the house of commons • five Sinn Féin MPs refused to take their seats • mPs salary is £74,000 - they had a 10% pay rise in July • the highest paid mp is … John Bercow who gets paid

£75,766 for being the Speaker, on top of his salary for being MP for Buckingham, in total £142,826

HOUSE OF LORDS

house of lords • The upper house of the UK Parliament • it can delay most bills passed by the House of Commons

for up to 1 year • it is a revising chamber in the parliament • should not reject or wreck bills that seek to enact a

manifesto commitment of the governing party

Hereditary peers The House of Lords Act (1999) ended the right of all but 92 hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords. Before the Act came into force, the House of Lords contained more than 750 hereditary peers who had inherited their title and a place in the upper house.

Life peers The Life Peerages Act (1958) gave the prime minister the right to appoint members of the upper house for life. Their title and right to sit in the Lords cannot be inherited. With the removal of most hereditary peers, life peers now form the largest category of members of the upper house.

Lords Spiritual Two archbishops and 24 senior bishops of the Church of England sit in the House of Lords.

House of lords in numbers • The new appointments take the total number of eligible

members to 826 • In 2014/15 the average daily attendance was 483 peers • Members can claim a tax-free daily allowance of £300 • net operating costs for the chamber totalled £94.4m for

2014/15 • Of this £20.7m was spent on members' allowances and expenses

THE MONARCHY

The monarchy The monarchy retains a formal and ceremonial role in parliament. The monarch is head of state, but many of the powers associated with the Crown, such as the power to declare war, are exercised by ministers.

The royal assent Approval by the monarch is the final stage in the legislative process. Only when a bill has been signed by the monarch can it become law. Constitutional convention dictates that the monarch must always grant they royal assent.

Appointing the prime minister The monarch appoints the prime minister. This is usually a formality, with the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons invited to form a government. If no party has a majority, the monarch awaits the outcome of discussions between parties, avoiding personal involvement in the process of forming a government.

Dissolving parliament The monarch’s prerogative power to dissolve parliament was ended by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act (2011). The monarch retains a formal role in bringing a parliamentary session to an end.

The Queens’s Speech At the State Opening of Parliament, the monarch opens the new parliamentary session and delivers the Queen’s Speech. It sets out the main bills that the government intends to introduce that year. The speech is drawn up by the government not the monarch.

functions of parliament

functions of parliament • legislation • scrutiny and accountability • representation • recruitment of ministers • legitimacy

Legislation Parliament is the legislative branch (the ‘legislature’) of a political system. The term reflects parliament’s primary function – making law.

Green Paper sets out various options for legislation.

White Paper explains the objectives of government policy

bill draft legislative proposal that is debated in parliament.

act When a bill has completed the legislative process and enters into law, it is known as an Act of Parliament.

public bills The most significant bills are public bills. The most important public bills are promoted by a government minister and concern general issues of public policy. Public bills are also the most common because the executive exercises significant control over the parliamentary timetable.

private members’ bills Legislative proposals initiated by backbench MPs rather than by the government. Only a small number of private members’ bills become law. Time constraints and the difficulty of persuading other MPs to back a proposal mean that most fall at an early stage.

The passage of a bill

effectiveness of legislation parliament’s effectiveness is making ad scrutinising law is limited by the dominance of the executive: • Government bills. Most bills that come before

parliament originate from the government. Private members’ bills have little chance of success unless they have government backing.

effectiveness of legislation • Parliamentary timetable. The executive controls much of the

legislative timetable. • Party discipline. The whip system ensures that government

proposals are rarely defeated and that most amendments are acceptable to it.

• House of Lords. The upper house scrutinises and revises legislation, but does not alter they key features of most bills.

scrutiny and accountability In addition to scrutinising a government’s legislative proposals, parliament also exercises a general scrutiny and oversight role. the parliament scrutinises the actions of the executive and ensures government accountability by requiring ministers to explain and justify their actions. The convention of individual ministerial responsibility states that ministers are accountable to parliament.

Question time Government ministers face questions from MPs on the floor of the house. The parliamentary timetable includes question sessions for ministers from each government department. The most high-profile event is Prime Minister’s Questions, which takes place each Wednesday at noon for half an hour.

The opposition The latest party not included in the government is the official opposition. The very architecture of the House of Commons is confrontational, with the government and opposition facing each other across the chamber.

the opposition the opposition will opposes many of the government’s legislative proposals, and hurries the government throughout the legislative process by tabling amendments and forcing votes. The leader of the opposition also confronts the prime minister at Question Time.

the opposition the opposition will also try to appear as an alternative government-in-waiting. It will need to develop its own policies and might consider supporting government measures that it agrees with. When government has a comfortable majority, a period in opposition can prove frustrating and fruitless.

Debates MPs can also express their views and try to influence policy in debates on current events and government actions. Their half-hour adjournment debates at the end of each day give MPs a chance to raise a particular issue. Ministers also take statements to parliament on major issues, and these are followed by debate. However, many debates are poorly attended.

Select committees In addition to general committees that examine legislation, there are a number of other committees which scrutinise government, the most important of which are select committees. They have proved to be far more effective than debates in holding the government to account.

Select committees Select committees decide the issues that they are going to examine. They have wide powers to summon witnesses and to examine restricted documents. The committees spend much time of their time questioning ministers, officials and outside experts.

Select committees The select committee system has deepened the accountability of government to parliament. The remit of select committees has been widened in recent years. Select committees are beginning to scrutinise legislation that has come into force, and hold hearings on some public appointments.

Representation The House of Commons consists of 650 MPs, elected from single-member constituencies. The geographical nature of representation is supposed to ensure that individual MPs can be identified as the exclusive representatives of their constituents, as opposed to the multi-member constituencies used in proportional representation systems.

Representation Constituency work takes up a greater proportion of an MP's time than in the recent past – almost half of it, according to a 2005 Hansard Society study. MPs hold regular surgeries in which constituents can discuss problems.

Recruitment of ministers Government ministers must be members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Parliament is, therefore, a recruiting ground for government. The number of government posts – the 'payroll vote' – has increased over the last 20 years with 95 MPs holding paid posts in 2012 and a further 43 unpaid positions as parliamentary private secretaries.

Legitimacy Parliament helps to maintain the legitimacy of the political system. Government policies are scrutinised and discussed by MPs who represent the people. MPs also hold the executive accountable and represent the interests of their constituents.