Role of parliament

Cards (24)

  • House of Lords

    Unelected chamber, members gain membership through appointment or inheritance, includes life peers, lord spirituals, and hereditary peers
  • House of Lords Act passed by Labour, removed most hereditary peers

    1999
  • Review and Revision by House of Lords
    Scrutinize Bills passed by the Commons, focus on non-controversial and technical aspects of legislation
  • Restrictions on the power of House of Lords

    Parliament Acts restrict their legislative powers, cannot veto legislation, can only delay most types for one session of Parliament, any "money bills" can be held up for only a month
  • Salisbury Convention

    Lords won't oppose legislation promised in the governing party's most recent election manifesto at second reading, convention not legally binding
  • Parliamentary Sovereignty is at the core of the UK constitution, and it rests primarily with the House of Commons
  • Functions of Parliament

    Making law, Representation, Furthering democracy, Scrutinising the government, Redressing Grievances
  • Structure of UK Parliament

    Bicameral, with the House of Commons and House of Lords, Speaker presides over debates in the House of Commons, there are select committees, PMQs, and debates
  • Executive and Legislature Interaction

    The Executive (Government) derives its authority from the Legislature (Parliament), the Prime Minister and majority of government ministers must be members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords
  • Executive Supremacy

    The balance of power has shifted toward the executive, the Government has the power to decide when new bills are introduced and influences their content, the Government has a reliable majority in the Commons due to the party system, enabling them to pass legislative proposals and maintain control over the legislative process
  • Recently, the power dynamics between the executive and legislature have shifted, this could be seen in the passage of Brexit-related legislation, when Parliament seized control of the legislative agenda from the executive
  • Functions of Parliament
    • Legislation
    • Recruitment of Ministers
    • Legitimacy
    • Representation
    • Scrutiny
    • Opposition
  • Legislation
    • Parliament makes laws
    • Parliament is the supreme legislature in the UK, in that it can make and unmake any law it wishes, as expressed in the principle of parliamentary sovereignty
    • Parliament is not restricted by a codified constitution, and no other law-making body can challenge Parliaments authority
    • MPs and Peers who win an annual ballot are allowed to present their own private legislation
    • First reading and second reading involves parliament in the introduction of a proposed bill and full debates
    • Committee stage is when public committees look at the details of the bills and make most amendments
  • Weakness Legislation
    • The bulk of Parliaments time is spent considering the Governments legislative programme. Only a small number of private member bills are initiated by backbenchers, and these are only successful if they have government support
    • Party Control of the House of Commons means that government bills are rarely defeated, and most amendments affect the details of legislation, not its major principles. It is more accurate to say that legislation is passed through parliament rather than by Parliament
  • Recruitment of Ministers
    • Members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords fill government posts
    • There are with maximum of 109 paid ministerial jobs, with a limit of 95 from the Commons
    • All ministers, must be MPs or Peers. Before they become frontbenchers, they 'cut their teeth' on the backbenchers. The advantage of this is that by participating in debates, asking parliamentary questions and sitting on committees, the ministers of the future learn their political trade. They gain and an understanding of how government works of how government works and of how policy is developed
  • Recruitment of Ministers
    • Ministers are recruited from a limited pool of talent; mainly the MPs of the largest party in the House of Commons
    • Parliamentarians may acquire speechmaking skills and learn how to deliver sound bites, but they do not gain the bureaucratic or management skills to run a government department
    • Fewer and fewer have ministers have experience of careers outside of politics
  • Legitimacy
    • Parliament 'stands for' the public, being a representative assembly. When it approves a measure, this makes it feel as though the public has approved it
    • Parliament approval is based on the assumption that the government's action have been properly debated and scrutinized, with any weaknesses or problems being properly exposed
    • When a government gains a strong majority in the House of Commons it can enjoy a mandate to carry out its manifesto
  • Legitimacy
    • Being non elected the House of Lords has no democratic legitimacy
    • Respect for Parliament has been undermined by scandals involving such as 'cash for questions' and 'cash for peerages
  • Representation
    • Parliament is the key link between government and the people, reflected in the fact that the UK has a system of parliamentary democracy
    • The representative function of Parliament is carried out by the elected House of Commons and operates through the relationship between MPs and their constituencies
    • MPs must represent the interests of their own constituency whenever they are involved in government policy or with a ministerial decision
  • Representation
    • An MP can openly say they do not support a particular aspect of their Party's policy, which may result to resignation
    • As the house of Lords is unelected, it carries out no representative role and undermines the democratic responsiveness of Parliament
    • The 'First Past the Post' voting system undermines the effectiveness of representation in the House of Commons
    • MPs and Peers remain socially unrepresentative of the larger society
  • Scrutiny
    • Parliaments role is to check or constrain the government of the day
    • Parliaments most important function is to 'call the government to account, forcing ministers to explain their actions and justify their policies
    • Scrutiny involves inspection, and where it is necessary, amendments may be proposed
    • Detailed scrutiny is carried out by legislative committees of both Houses
  • Scrutiny
    • As the majority of the MPs in House of Commons are from the governing party, their role is t support the government of the day, not to scrutinize and embarrass it
    • Question time is often weak and ineffective. Oral questions seldom produce detailed responses, and are used to embarrass ministers than t subjects them to careful scrutiny
    • In select committees, the government has a majority on each of these committees (the committees reflect the composition of the House of Commons)
    • Individual committee appointments are influenced by the whips, which ensure that loyal backbenchers sit on key committees
    • Select committees have no executive power. At best they can criticize government; but they cannot change government policy
  • Opposition
    • It is now by practice to appoint a shadow cabinet with other shadow ministerial positions
    • By convention, members of shadow government occupy the Bench facing the government front bench
    • At prime ministers questions time, the leader of the opposition has a privileged position, being permitted by the speaker a maximum of sixe interventions
    • Members of the opposition have the opportunities to either criticize government policy or highlight alternative policies
  • Opposition
    • Being a minority power, it has no veto
    • To veto power, legislation and policies it needs to be joined by other parties (if the government has no overall majority and a hung parliament