Functions HOC

• Functions of the House of Commons

  • Representation.
  • Law-Making; including Private Members' Bills.
  • Legitimation.
  • Scrutiny; PMQs; Select Committees; individual ministerial responsibility.
• Representation

  • The House of Commons represents all of the UK’s geographical regions.
  • Each of the 650 MPs represents an average constituency size of 75,000 voters.
  • MPs spend time in their constituencies meeting people, visiting local businesses, and hold regular ‘surgeries’ where constituents can discuss their concerns.
  • MPs represent their constituents’ interests in debates and votes.
  • MP Ken Clarke voted to give Parliament a vote on any Brexit deal reached, as his constituents voted to remain, going against Conservative policy.
• Law-Making

  • House of Commons passes legislation through a number of stages. Laws are debated before being passed.
  • The government’s planned laws for the year are outlined in the King’s speech. Government bills are often successfully passed by Parliament.
  • The Data Protection Act (2018) is an example of government legislation, which increased regulation of personal data.
• Private Members Bills

  • Private members’ bills are introduced by MPs and become laws if they pass through the law-making process.
  • The City of London Corporation Act (2018) is a private members’ bill which allowed the City of London Corporation to have a greater management of open spaces in London.
• Legitimation

  • The House of Commons approves important decisions that impact people in the UK, and has used its legitimacy function to stop, change, and question Government action.
  • In 2013 the House of Commons voted against military intervention in Syria which was proposed by the Government.
• Scrutiny via PMQs

  • The House of Commons holds the government and ministers to account through Question Times where ministers have to provide answers for the actions of the government.
  • There are Prime Minister's Questions every Wednesday where the PM is questioned by the Leader of the Opposition and other members of Parliament.
• Scrutiny - Select Committes

  • Departmental Select Committees scrutinise government department work and ministers.
  • Departmental Select Committees ask more in-depth questions than Question Times.
  • Nick Hurd, the Home Office Minister, was questioned by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on the support provided for people affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.
  • The Home Affairs Select Committee investigated a disagreement in 2011 between Theresa May, the Home Secretary at the time, and Brodie Clark, a civil servant, over UK border force failings.
• Scrutiny - individual ministerial responsibility

  • The convention of individual ministerial responsibility holds all ministers in government accountable for the actions of themselves and their department.
  • Amber Rudd resigned as Home Secretary after she misled the House of Commons over her department’s targets for removing illegal immigrants from the UK.
• Law-Making not effective

  • The process of making laws can take a long time because a bill has to pass through a number of stages before it becomes a law.
  • The Assaults on Emergency Workers Act (2018), which increased protection for people working for emergency services, took over a year to pass through Parliament and become law.
  • Private members’ bills often fail to become laws. Only two private members’ bills have passed into law since the 2017 general election.
• Law-making not effective due to party whips

  • MPs cannot always freely debate and vote on laws because the party leadership can tell them to follow the party line.
  • The government and party leadership use party whips, who are MPs appointed by each party, to force bills through Parliament.
  • A three-line whip is an instruction for MPs to vote in a certain, party-approved way.
  • A three-line whip was used by the Conservative Party leadership to order Conservative MPs to vote for triggering Article 50, to begin the process of the UK leaving the EU.
• Legitimation

  • The House of Commons has legitimated Government action which was not in the interests of people in the UK.
  • The war in Iraq was legitimated by the House of Commons despite lots of public opposition. Over 750,000 people protested in London on a single day in February 2003 against the war.
• Scrutiny not effective

  • Some see Question Time and Prime Minister’s Questions as lacking the power and effectiveness to properly scrutinise the government.
  • Ministers often avoid directly answering questions.
  • Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) has been nicknamed ‘Punch and Judy’ politics because it becomes a political shouting match rather than a tool to hold the government to account.
  • Members of Parliament often ask planted questions at PMQs to make the government and party leaders appear strong to the public.
• Scrutiny - Select Committees

  • Select committee scrutiny can also be ineffective at holding the government to account when ministers are unhelpful in providing evidence when questioned.
  • In 2016 Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary at the time, was accused of “waffling” by the committee chair of the foreign affairs select committee during questioning.