govt

• Sovereign Grant Act 2011


  Introduced a streamlined funding regime for the reigning sovereign and their immediate family (the "Royal Household")
• Civil list


  Originated in the Bill of Rights with William and Mary's accession; Parliament voted to pay the Royal Household £600K to aid it in civil government
• Civil list


  1. Became more formalized in 1760, during Geroge III's reign

  2. In return for the King surrendering to Parliament – hereditary revenues

  3. MPs agreed a fixed annual income for the Royal Household
• Hereditary revenues


  Profit generated by the Crown Lands (estates previously owned by the monarch)
• Grants-in-aid


  • Money covering the maintenance costs of "occupied royal palaces" (Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, and Windsor Castle)
  • Covered/funded the royal's travel costs (royal train) and both chartered and scheduled flights used by senior family members for official visits
  • The remaining budget went to royal communications: letters, telephone bills, and more
• Civil List and grants-in-aid


  Designed to enable the Monarch to finance future repairs to palaces without need for further public subsidy
• Privy Purse


  Income generated by the Duchy of Lancaster – a huge piece of land and the sole surviving Crown Estate still owned by the monarch (over 19k acres)
• Taxation


  • The Monarch pays indirect taxes – value added tax (VAT) and other tariffs levied on consumer goods and services
  • Monarch voluntarily pays council tax
  • The Privy Purse pays tax and the King's personal estate incurs inheritance tax
  • Sovereign grant is untaxed along with any property transfer "from "sovereign to sovereign"
• Pandemic: loss of income from visitors to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle was one of many factors contributing to an overall year-on-year shortfall of £14.6m
• Prime Minister


  • Primus inter pares = "first among equals" and is the most powerful individual in the government
  • Powers of the PM are not codified in the constitution
• Prime Minister


  • How powerful a PM is dependent on circumstances and your control of your political party, as well as how popular you happen to be and whether you have a majority in parliament are other important factors
• Cabinet hierarchy


  • Prime Minister
  • Chancellor
  • Foreign Secretary
  • Home Secretary
  • Health Secretary & Education Secretary
  • "Lesser" Secretaries
  • Chief Whip
  • Attorney General
• Collective responsibility


  • All ministers accept responsibility collectively for decisions made in Cabinet and committees, is the main convention influencing the operation of the Cabinet
  • Ministers must not vote against executive policy
  • Ministers cannot publicly disagree with executive policy
  • All decisions are unanimous
  • (No leaking or briefing) ministers (past and present), should not reveal cabinet secrets
• Any cabinet position can be changed, merged or abolished by the PM
• Aspects of individual ministerial responsibility

  • Ministers have to account to parliament for their own personal conduct and department actions
  • Explanatory accountability (must explain why things are not going well)
  • Amendatory or "remedial" accountability (state how the problem will be fixed)
  • Culpability (resignation) -- take the credit when things go well or the blame when things go wrong
• Prime Minister


  • Determines executive composition (who is in their cabinet)
  • Chair cabinet meetings (what's discussed, who speaks, how long, etc.)
  • Leads on domestic/foreign policy
  • Controls parliamentary voting
  • Leads party (can control parliament with the majority)
  • Communicator-in-chief – media role (most well-known government representative)
  • Under the royal prerogative, the PM has certain powers devolved from the monarch (signing treaties or going to war)
• First Minister of Scotland

  • Able to fire and hire cabinet members
  • Responsible for the overall development, implementation and presentation of the administration's policies and for promoting and representing Scotland at home and overseas
  • Able to appoint other ministers (Deputy First Minister) and cabinet secretaries from among MSPs
  • Chairs the Scottish cabinet
• Ombudsman


  Appointed by the Office for Legal Complaints to run an independent scheme that resolves complaints about lawyers in a fair and effective way
• The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was passed before the Labour party was elected

  1997
• Freedom of Information (FOI) Act

  • First implemented in 2002 with public right to access in 2005
  • Regulated by an Information Commissioner
  • Applies to over 100,000 public bodies including local government, councils, government departments, the police, and NHS
  • FOI requests must be made in writing and public bodies have a statutory obligation to provide information (no obligation on what must be publicised)
  • You're entitled to be informed in writing about the decision that's been made on your FOI, and you must receive the information within 20 days
  • The FOI system is not a document-based system, and it is not applicable to private sector organisations working in the public sector
• Exemptions to FOI


  • Absolute exemption – information accessible by other means
  • Security matters, court records, or if the information comes under parliamentary privilege
  • Likely to have a prejudicial effect on the conduct of public affairs
  • Personal information, confidential information, or prohibited information
  • Qualified exemptions – relies on whether the FOI is public interest and not prejudicial to UK interest (defense, international relations, employment, law enforcement, health and safety and commercial interests)
• FOI request


  1. Check publication scheme

  2. Provide contact details

  3. Explain the nature of the request in a specific manner

  4. Remind the authorities' obligations and that you know what information you're entitled to

  5. State specific time frame
• Challenging FOI refusal


  1. Contact the organisation that refused first

  2. Then contact the Information Commissioner in Scotland

  3. After this depending on judgement, you can appeal to either the Court of Session of Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)
• Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)

  The final stage for complaints about public service organisations in Scotland
• The UK Constitution is not codified
• Main concepts of the UK Constitution

  • Statute – various acts of Parliament and covers parliamentary privilege (MPS can make statements in the House of Commons without fear of defamation)
  • Common law – interpretations by judges
  • Conventions – well-worn customs and practices
  • Treatises – selected historical works, constitutional documents
  • Treaties – international agreements (UN, EU, NATO)
• Legislative process


  1. Green paper (consultative document)

  2. White paper (command document - more detailed, sets out the government's proposed legislation. Includes a draft of the bill itself)

  3. First Reading (formal intent to introduce a bill officially introduced into Parliament, no debate)

  4. Second reading (bill is debated in principle, rare for bill to be defeated at this stage)

  5. Committee (legislation is considered clause by clause and line by line)

  6. Report stage (the bill is reported back to the House of Commons; amendments can be made)

  7. Third reading (the final approved by parliament, no amendments at this stage are possible in the House of Commons)

  8. House of Lords to consider amendments (aka ping-pong)

  9. Monarchs Assent – to any bill which turns into an Act
• Types of private member's bills

  • Balloted bill (members who are drawn from a ballot and usually around the first 7 get a day's debate on a proposal)
  • 10-minute rule bills (where there is little chance to introduce legislation but can be useful to get media attention)
  • Presentation bills (where any MP who has given notice beforehand can introduce a bill, but they do not get to speak on it)
• Early day motions


  Not debated but are printed and allow others to add their names to them (useful for signaling an issue to the government)
• Standing Order 14


  • Allows the government's business to take precedence (i.e. priority in the House of Commons)
  • Exceptions: 20 days per session opposition business is given priority, 27 days per session priority is given to backbench business, 13 Fridays precedence is given to the Private Members Bills
• If the government does not put forward an amendable motion, then it's not possible to suspend the standing order against the government's wishes
• Select committees


  • Tend to scrutinise government departments and standing committees only exist for the purpose of any new legislation
  • Never more than eight committees running at any one time and usually they have between 10-15 members
• Scotland Act 1998


  • Anything not reserved by Westminster fell under the remit of the Scottish Parliament
  • Westminster reserved: employment, social security, immigration, equal opportunities, foreign affairs, defence, etc.
  • Holyrood has health, education, housing, social work, local government, and law amongst others
• Scottish elections


  • Additional number of mixed-member system is the proportional system used
  • 73 First-Past-Post constituency MSPs and 56 elected from regional lists
  • Voters are given two votes in Scotland. One for their individual MSP by using a cross next to their preferred candidate and another vote where they choose by a list of political party
  • Scotland is divided into eight regions which elect 7 MSPs each (total 56)
  • The voting system in Scotland is used to provide a proportional share of seats using the d-Hondt system
• Scottish Parliament legislative process


  1. Stage 1: principles of the new legislation are considered in committee (evidence is taken before a plenary vote)

  2. Stage 2: the bill is returned to the committee for any amendments that are required

  3. Stage 3: Amendments are approved or not in plenary and when completed there is a debate and vote on the whole bill (same as Westminster) Then the formal process of Monarch assent is required
• The Scottish system is dominated by political parties and these parties do portray a certain degree of tribalism not consensus
• With the increase of the workload for parliament comes an increase in workload for committees and MSPs as they have to sit on more than one committee
• Before the legislative process in Scotland

  1. First a lead committee is appointed

  2. Then the pre-legislative stage is designed to ensure proper consultation

  3. Next is the introduction of the bill (accompanied by documentation) into parliament
• UK Parliament


  Bicameral legislature designed to provide checks and balances on government power
• House of Lords


  • Upper House is composed of approximately 800 unelected members
  • One of the oldest legislative bodies dating back to the 11th century
  • Contested as an unrepresentative system leading to debates about its place in Parliament