1.2.4 Debates about the effectiveness of Parliament

• Parliament's ability to scrutinize government actions ensures transparency and accountability
• Arrange the mechanisms used by Parliament to hold the government to account in order of their significance:

  1️⃣ Prime Minister's Questions

  2️⃣ Select committees

  3️⃣ Votes of confidence
• Parliament's scrutiny is always effective in holding the government to account.

  False
• Parliament's ability to represent diverse interests allows it to reflect a wide range of perspectives
• Match the arguments challenging Parliament's effectiveness with their explanations:

  Dominance of the executive ↔️ Government overrides Parliament's decisions

  Lack of independence ↔️ MPs are loyal to political parties

  Ineffective scrutiny ↔️ Committees lack resources

  Unrepresentative composition ↔️ Certain groups are underrepresented
• What is one argument against the effectiveness of Parliament due to the dominance of the executive?

  Government overrides Parliament's decisions
• Parliament's ability to scrutinize government actions is always effective.

  False
• Match the argument for Parliament's effectiveness with its explanation:

  Scrutiny and oversight ↔️ Ensures transparency and accountability

  Representation of diverse interests ↔️ Reflects a wide range of perspectives

  Debating and amending legislation ↔️ Improves the quality of laws

  Holding the government to account ↔️ Uses mechanisms like Prime Minister's Questions
• Order the following proposed reforms to enhance Parliament's effectiveness:

  1️⃣ Strengthen select committees

  2️⃣ Increase parliamentary time for scrutiny

  3️⃣ Reform party discipline

  4️⃣ Improve representation of diverse groups

  5️⃣ Enhance transparency and accountability
• Allocating more parliamentary time for scrutiny includes debating and amending legislation
• Why is improving the representation of diverse groups in Parliament necessary?

  Ensure wider population reflects
• Enhancing transparency in Parliament increases the accountability of the government
• Match the reform proposal with its explanation:

  Strengthen select committees ↔️ Provide more resources and powers

  Increase parliamentary time for scrutiny ↔️ Allocate more time for debates

  Reform party discipline ↔️ Reduce party dominance

  Improve representation of diverse groups ↔️ Ensure Parliament reflects the population
• Match the arguments supporting Parliament's effectiveness with their explanations:

  Scrutiny and oversight ↔️ Ensures government transparency and accountability

  Representation of diverse interests ↔️ Reflects a wide range of perspectives

  Debating and amending legislation ↔️ Improves the quality of laws

  Holding the government to account ↔️ Uses mechanisms like PMQs and votes of confidence
• Parliament's scrutiny and oversight role helps maintain checks and balances on the executive branch.


  True
• The dominance of the executive can limit Parliament's ability to scrutinize and hold the government to account
• Why is Parliament sometimes seen as lacking independence from the executive?

  MPs are loyal to parties
• Parliament's role in debating and amending legislation improves the quality of laws.

  True
• The unrepresentative composition of Parliament can limit its ability to reflect the country's diverse interests
• Parliament's effectiveness is challenged by its lack of independence
• Why might the composition of Parliament limit its effectiveness?

  Unrepresentative of wider population
• Parliament holds the government to account through mechanisms like Prime Minister's Questions
• What is one goal of strengthening select committees in Parliament?

  Conduct thorough investigations
• Reforming party discipline aims to increase the independence of MPs.


  True
• Proposed reforms to Parliament address challenges like dominance of the executive and lack of independence.


  True