parliament

• The Liaison Committee requires the PMs annual attendance to scrutinise their actions.
• Under John Bercow (Speaker 2009-2019) answered 670 urgent questions. Urgent Questions require a response from the relevant government minister that day.
• PMQs, occurring weekly, is often criticised for its Punch and Judy style.
• Questions took up 993 hours of Parliamentary time in the 2017-2019 session.
• 700 hours were spent debating the Fox Hunting Act in 2004, only 7 hours were spent debating the 2003 war in Iraq.
• Public Bills are introduced by the government, an average of 25-35 are introduced each year.
• Between 2019 and 2021, less than 10 Private Members Bills became law.
• 1/5 of all ministers have now worked in Politics before entering the House of Commons.
• AWS in 1997 increased the number of women in the House of Commons by 64 women. Going from 37 to 101.
• In 2010 to 2015, Peter Bone, the leader of the Awkward Squad, voted against the government over 150 times.
• 91 Conservative MPs voted against the 2012 House of Lords Reform Bill. It did not pass.
• 139 Labour MPs voted against war in Iraq in 2003, but it still passed due to the large Labour majority.
• Delegate vs Representative Model - Jo Johnson retired from his cabinet post in support of Remain, despite a widely Leave constituency.
• The Parliament Act 1949 reduced the time a Bill can be postponed to only one year.
• The Salisbury Convention states that Lords should not vote against the manifesto pledges of the governing party. This was ignored in 2010-2015 and in 2017-2019 as no party had a majority of seats.
• The Lords have more freedom to debate than the Commons. There are 183 Crossbench MPs and they are not subject to Guillotine Motions.
• There were 128 government defeats in the House of Commons during the 2021-2022 session.
• Tony Blair passed a bill every 3 and 1/4 hours. He only had four defeats in his eight year tenure.
• Theresa May was defeated 33 times between 2017 and 2019.
• In 2019-2021, out of the 20 selected and 456 proposed, only 7 Private Member Ballot Bills were passed.
• Filibustering

  The prolonging of a debate to prevent it being passed.
• The Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965 was a Private Member Bill.
• 40% of Select Committee suggestions are adopted into policy. Select Committee suggestions must be responded to within 60 days.
• 4 Bills have used the Parliamentary Act 1949, including the 2004 Fox Hunting Act.
• The Commons overturned 5 Lords amendments on the EU Withdrawal agreement.
• The 2020 Withdrawal Agreement was defeated 433-165 in spite of 212 Conservative Peers.
• The Lords have no power over the government budget.
• Before 1999 House of Lords Act there were 1,330 hereditary peers. This was reduced to 92.
• Ethnic Minorities make up 6.4% of the Lords as compared to 13% of the population.
• There are only 207 female Peers in the Lords (25%)
• In 2018 only 5% of the Lords lived in the North West.
• 24 (3%) Bishops as Peers in the House of Lords
• The SNP refuse to send peers to the House of Lords.
• There were over 450 defeats in the House of Lords between 1999 and 2010
• There were 103,000 written questions and 9,000 oral question during the 2017-2019.
• The 2020 Coronavirus Act Act gave emergency powers to the government to make law surrounding the pandemic.
• The House of Lords has 750 members, the Commons have 650.
• Margret Thatcher won a majority of 144 seats in the 1983 election.
• Margret Thatcher was only defeated 4 times in her 11 years.
• Major only won a 21 seat majority.