UK Parliament

What is the UK Parliament? House of Commons: The House of Commons is made up of 650 Members of Parliament (MPs). Every MP is elected by and to represent a geographic constituency. At least every five years, in general elections, all 650 constituencies elect an MP at the same time. House of Lords: The House of Lords is made up of over 700 peers, none of whom are elected by the general public. Over 600 are life peers, appointed by the King on the advice of the Prime Minister. 26 are bishops, the most senior of the 42 in the Church of England. And 92 are hereditary peers; when one dies, resigns or becomes disqualified, those remaining of the same party affiliation elect a replacement from the over 800 up and down the country. Crown-in-Parliament: The Crown-in-Parliament is essentially the King, who must grant each bill royal assent for it to become law. No King or Queen has blocked a bill from becoming law since 1707.
What does the UK Parliament do? Makes law (Acts of Parliament): To become law, a bill needs: To be passed by MPs; To be passed by Peers (though there are exceptions to this rule); To be granted Royal Assent. Scrutinises the UK Government: The UK Parliament holds the UK Government to account. The most public example of this is probably Prime Minister’s Questions. But Parliament perhaps best scrutinises the UK Government through its numerous select committees. Chooses the Prime Minister: The Prime Minister is technically appointed by the King as the person who he believes can best command the confidence of the House of Commons. But, since World War 2, the Prime Minister has always also been the leader of the political party which has the most MPs in the House of Commons.
UK Parliament legislative process. How a bill becomes an Act of Parliament: Bills can be introduced in the House of Commons or the House of Lords, but most (in respect of the House of Lords, note the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 and the Salisbury-Addison Convention) will need to be approved in identical form by both Houses before receiving Royal Assent and becoming law. Before a public bill is formally tabled, it may be preceded by a green paper, a more-detailed white paper or even just reports that the UK Government wants to pass a new law. This is, essentially, an exercise in ‘testing the water’. In each House, the legislative process goes: First Reading: Introduce; Second Reading: Debate, vote; Committee Stage (the committee stage in the House of Commons almost always takes place in a public bill committee, not on the floor of the House of Commons): Debate, amend; Report Stage (the report stage in the House of Commons is skipped when the committee stage has taken place on the House of Commons floor): Debate, amend; Third Reading: Debate, vote. This is then followed by: Ping-Pong: Debate, amend; Royal Assent: Approve. Types of bill: Public bills are tabled by ministers and apply to the general public; Private bills are tabled by ministers, but only apply to specific persons or objects; Hybrid bills are a mix of both a public bill and a private bill; Private members’ bills are not tabled by ministers at all. House of Commons timetable: 27 to 35 days per session are allocated to the Backbench Business Committee; 17 days per session are allocated to the largest opposition party and three days by the second largest opposition party; 13 Fridays per session are devoted to Private Members’ Bills; The rest (and most) of the time in each session, roughly 150 days, are controlled by the UK Government.
Key House of Lords reforms. Parliament Act 1911: MPs can now bypass Peers when passing bills: MPs can now pass most bills into law by themselves: if they pass the bill in three sessions and wait at least two years. Peers formally lose their say over money bills. Parliament Act 1949: The conditions in the 1911 Act are reduced to two sessions and one year. Salisbury-Addison Convention: A constitutional convention develops whereby Peers will not block the Government’s manifesto promises. Life Peerages Act 1958: Although life peerages existed before 1958, this Act allowed (almost) anyone to be appointed to the House of Lords for just their life. House of Lords Act 1999: All but 92 hereditary peers at any given time lose their ancient right to sit in the House of Lords. Constitutional Reform Act 2005: The Lord Speaker replaces the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords. The Appellate Committee is replaced with a Supreme Court.
Elective dictatorship. What does “elective dictatorship” mean? “Elective dictatorship” is how Lord Hailsham described the UK’s system of government in a 1976 lecture. His argument was this: “the sovereignty of Parliament has increasingly become, in practice, the sovereignty of the Commons, and the sovereignty of the Commons has increasingly become the sovereignty of the government”. He gave several reasons why the UK Government had become an “elective dictatorship”, including: quality of debate (“[T]he time allotted for debate of individual measures has become progressively less and less” and “[u]ntil recently, debate and argument dominated the parliamentary scene. Now it is the Whips and the party caucus. More and more debate, where it is not actually curtailed, is becoming a ritual dance”), House of Lords (“[I]t isn’t an effective balancing factor and can’t in practice control the advancing powers of the executive”), opposition (“The opposition is gradually being reduced to impotence”), backbenchers (“Back-benchers, where they show promise are soon absorbed into the administration and so lose their power of independent action”), frontbenchers (“[T]he actual members of the government, with their parliamentary private secretaries, are one of the largest and most disciplined single groups in the House… not one, so long as he retain his position, can exercise an independent judgement”), civil service “[D]isproportionate influence of ministers in debate as a result of their possession of the civil service brief”) and power of dissolution (“At the centre of the web sits the prime minister. There he sits, with his hand on the lever of dissolution, which he is free to operate at any moment of his choice”).
Challenging elective dictatorship. Is the description “elective dictatorship” accurate? There was, and still is, undoubtedly a lot of truth in what Lord Hailsham said, however a 2016 article by Meg Russell and Philip Cowley argued that the UK Parliament has a “significant policy influence, at successive stages of the policy process”: In the UK Parliament, the UK Government can be subject to “defeats”, but “retreats” are much more common and can take the form of withdrawing a bill, amending it or calling a “free vote”. Both “retreats” and “defeats” are becoming more common; Following the House of Lords Act 1999, the House of Lords (especially government backbenchers) became bolder and inflicted more defeats on the UK Government: 88 times in 2002–03! This number fell to 25 in 2008–09; by this point, the UK Government almost definitely became much more responsive to the views of Peers; In a study of 12 bills in the UK Parliament, while rebellions and defeats were rare, over 60% of UK Government amendments “with substance” could be traced back to parliamentary influence. External pressure groups were also active in respect of amendments. All UK Government departments handling public bills must put in writing, essentially, “handling strategies” of both MPs and Peers. This article also included a discussion of select committees, which are covered in a separate resource.
Prime Minister’s Questions. What is PMQs? Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) takes place at 12pm on Wednesdays and is arguably the most high-profile moment in the parliamentary week. At PMQs, the Prime Minister can be asked about almost anything. The leaders of the two largest opposition parties always get to ask questions, while the MPs who get to ask the rest (and the order in which they get to do so) is decided by a ballot. Is PMQs an effective method of scrutiny? John Bercow claimed that PMQs can cast the House of Commons in a bad light and overshadow the work of select committees. PMQs forces the (arguably) most powerful person in the country to turn up almost every week and be scrutinised. Prime Ministers spend a lot of time preparing for PMQs each week, which allows them to learn more about the operation of the UK Government, says Gavin Barwell. Bercow says “if it is scrutiny at all, then it is scrutiny by screech”, reflecting that the focus sometimes appears to be on electioneering over scrutiny; whips have been known to ‘plant’ questions from friendly MPs to the Prime Minister in the past. Ayesha Hazarika and Tom Hamilton say that PMQs contains genuine disagreement and strong politics; many of the contributions concern important issues to MPs.
Select committees. What are they? Modern select committees are a relatively new development: 1979. Select committees are groups of MPs or Peers, who “check and report on areas ranging from the work of government departments to economic affairs”. Each select committee focuses on one topic, like UK Government ministerial departments (generally MPs) or policy areas (generally Peers), and can be permanent or temporary. Select committees should not be confused with public bill committees, which are part of the legislative process. How impactful are they? A 2013 study by Meghan Benton and Meg Russell concluded: Select committees are influential by: direct UK government acceptance of select committee recommendations, influencing policy debates as an authoritative voice, highlighting the niche or overlooked, intra-UK Government brokerage, providing expert evidence, holding the UK Government and others to account, exposure of the ugly and generating fear of what they may do. 40% of sampled select committee recommendations were fully or partially accepted by the UK Government and only 33% were fully or partially rejected, but just 12% were fully accepted and, for large policy changes, the 40% and 33% figures fell to just 14% and 58%, respectively. Are they effective scrutinisers? Select committees breed a culture of MPs generally behaving in a non-partisan manner. Select committees are well resourced and can basically do and say what they want. Select committees lack some powers (like to force witnesses to attend meetings). Select committee influence varies. The Health Committee’s recommendation of a “full ban” on smoking in 2005 and ensuing lobbying is often cited as evidence of impact. The Health and Social Care Committee recommended drug decriminalisation in 2019, which the UK Government rejected.