UK Parliament

11 Key excerpts on "UK Parliament"

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  Optimize Public Law

  • Ursula Smartt(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Revision objectives Understand the law Remember the details Reflect critically on areas of debate Contextualise Apply your skills and knowledge Parliament Acts 1911 1949 Parliament and the Law-Making Process 6 Chapter Map First Reading of the Bill Second Reading of the Bill Westminster Parliament The Passage of Legislation in the UK Report Stage and Third Reading of the Bill House of Commons or House of Lords House of Commons or House of Lords Debate in the HC or HL Royal Assent Devolved Parliaments Scottish Parliament Northern Ireland Assembly Welsh Assembly Parliament and the Law-Making Process 113 Introduction: Functions of Parliament and Government The main function of Parliament (the Legislature) is making new laws (Bills in Par- liament). Together with the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the Crown is an integral part of the institution of Parliament. We therefore talk about ‘the Queen [or King] in Parliament’ when we mean the Westminster Parliament. The Monarch plays a constitutional role in opening and dissolving Parliament and approving Bills before they become law, known as Royal Assent. The Crown informs Parliament of the Government’s policy ideas and plans for new legislation in a speech delivered from the throne in the House of Lords (known as the Queen’s or King’s Speech). Although the Queen or King makes the speech, the Government draws up the content. The business of the Westminster Parliament takes place in two Houses: the House of Commons and the House of Lords – also known as a bi-cameral system. Their work is similar: making laws, checking the work of the Government (scrutiny or ‘checks and balances’) and debating current issues. The House of Commons (HC) is also responsible for granting money to the Government through approving Bills that raise taxes. Generally, the decisions made in one House have to be approved by the other. In this way, the two-chamber (bi-cameral) system acts as a check and balance for both Houses.

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  Finding official British Information

  Official Publishing in the Digital Age

  • Jane Inman, Howard Picton(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Chandos Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Hansard, 28 April 2009, col. WA28)

  As one of the 27 Member States of the European Union, the UK Parliament, on behalf of the UK, attempts to monitor and scrutinise the vast amount of information and legislation which comes from the EU. For a background to EU institutions generally, see the EU website at http://europa.eu , and for easy-to-follow descriptions see www.direct.gov.uk and search for Europe. Alternatively see www.fco.gov.uk where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office provides Britain in the European Union. To quote from the Parliament website the role of Parliament in Europe is:

   to scrutinise EU draft legislation and other EU documents;

   to change UK law to reflect agreed EU legislation and treaties;

   to hold the government to account on its EU policies and negotiating positions in the EU institutions.

  In practice this works by the UK Parliament receiving copies of EU documents and these are considered by the scrutiny committees in the Commons and the Lords. It should be understood that ‘The EU has the authority to apply legislation in the UK but actually putting it into action may require Parliament to pass new or amended legislation’ (Parliament website).

  So far as legislation is concerned, it may issue from the Council of the European Union in the form of regulations, directives and decisions:

   Regulations.

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  Policy Making in Britain

  An Introduction

  • Peter Dorey(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Such a conclusion, though, seriously overlooks or underestimates the important roles that Parliament does play in debating, scrutinizing and subsequently evaluating legislation and other measures of public policy (on which, see the voluminous output by Britain’s foremost academic expert on Parliament, Philip Norton, including: Norton, 1981; Norton, 1985; Norton, 1990; Norton, 1991; Norton, 1993a; Norton, 1998; Norton, 2005; Norton, 2013). Parliament still plays an important role in aspects of the policy process; if it did not exist, some comparable institution would need to be established to perform the valuable functions that are conducted by Parliament with regard to legislation and other aspects of public policy in Britain.

  Norton has consistently argued that Parliament’s primary roles should be understood as those of policy modification and policy legitimation, rather than actual policy making per se. For example, Norton has suggested that: ‘The importance of Parliament lies in the fact that it is the body through which power is exercised, and concomitantly in the fact that its giving of consent is accepted as legitimate and binding’ (Norton, 1981: 219, emphasis in original. See also Norton 1990).

  This perspective is clearly echoed by Kalitowski (2008: 707) when she notes that: ‘Parliament … makes a difference to legislation, sometimes in major ways, and more frequently through many minor but significant changes’. Similarly, Cowley observes that ‘MPs may not make policy, but they do constrain and occasionally prod government. All but the most technical of decisions are affected by some consideration of party management’ (Cowley, 2005: 9. See also Judge, 1993: 124–5; Richards, 1988: 14, 15).

  However, before we examine the specific ways in which Parliament fulfils its role in the policy process, we need to briefly explain the relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and how they interact.

  THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND HOUSE OF LORDS

  Once the franchise was steadily extended via the 1832, 1867 and 1884 Reform/Representation of the People Acts, so the balance of political power and popular legitimacy shifted steadily towards the House of Commons, for this alone was elected. In stark contrast, the House of Lords remained almost wholly comprised of hereditary peers, and the few peers who had not inherited their titles sat in the Second Chamber as ex-officio

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  Public Law Essentials

  • Jean McFadden, Dale McFadzean(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • EUP

    (Publisher)

  6 THE UNITED KINGDOM PARLIAMENT The Parliament of the United Kingdom consists of three distinct elements: • the monarch; • the House of Commons (an elected body); and • the House of Lords (an unelected body). THE MONARCH In Chapter 5, we have already examined the important role played by the monarch in relation to Parliament. By convention, the Queen must give Royal Assent to Bills which have been passed by the House of Commons and the House of Lords to enable them to become Acts of the Queen in Parliament. The Queen also summons Parliament after each General Election and dissolves it at the end of its term. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS The House of Commons currently consists of 650 men and women known as Members of Parliament or MPs.This number was to be reduced to 600 at the 2015 general election, by the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Act 2011, but the reduction in the number of MPs has been put on hold in the meantime. They are chosen by a method known as the relative majority or “first past the post” (FPTP) system whereby the candidate who receives the most votes in a parliamentary constituency will be elected to Parliament. There are many criticisms of this method of election, chiefly that it leads to a Parliament which does not necessarily reflect the political choices of the majority of voters who choose losing candidates. Even if the runner-up candidate in a constituency has lost by a handful of votes, he does not receive any right to sit in Parliament. Consequently, a number of calls have been made to replace the current system with one which is more proportionate. There are a number of alternatives, including the Additional Member System (AMS), used by the Scottish Parliament, which seeks to achieve a closer link between the number of votes cast for each candidate and the number of seats won. In 2011 a referendum was held throughout the UK, under the

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  Global Parliamentary Report

  The Changing Nature of Parliamentary Representation

  • (Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

    (Publisher)

  Similarly, in countries such as Yemen, Jordan and Oman, the promise of genuine legislative and oversight powers for the parliament are key reforms designed to respond to public demands. In short, parliaments appear to be both a symbol of, and a key element in, the creation of a representative state. 6 World Public Opinion.org 2008. 1.1.2. Institutional Structures: Form Following Function Although every society reflects the central role of represen- tation as an organizing principle, the structures of today’s parliamentary institutions have their roots in the Euro- pean parliaments of the medieval era. The eight or nine centuries since that first incarnation have bred a Darwinian diversity of institutions – all with the same common roots and undoubtedly of the same species, but with obvious distinctions that set them apart from one another. The Icelandic Athingi, considered by many to be the first national parliament, dates from 930 CE, when it first served as a forum for local leaders to meet. The British House of Commons (originally ‘communes’) has its origins in the 13th century, when its principal role was to bring together nobles to discuss the state of the realm and approve the supply of money to the king from local communities. 7 The institutions that devel- oped across Europe in time bore three similar traits, namely: first, providing or withholding consent for the monarch; second, representing various communities within the nation; and third, using the power of the purse to bargain with the monarch and petition for the redress of individuals’ grievances. Such institutions were exported to various parts of the world through the colonial powers of Europe. The transformation of the medieval institution into a democratic one began in the USA in the 17 th and 18 th centuries.

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  Parliaments and Citizens

  • Cristina Leston-Bandeira(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  Parliament and Citizens in the United Kingdom PHILIP NORTON

  The relationship that has developed between Parliament and citizen in the United Kingdom has been two-way and multi-faceted. This article examines the input achieved by citizen (as voter, constituent, and member of organised interest) through party, the MP, and the institution: and the output of Parliament to citizen through party, MP, and its own resources. The nature of and need for engagement have been exacerbated by recent scandals and both Houses of Parliament have sought to achieve greater direct engagement with the public through the use of the new social media. Citizens continue to distinguish between the local MP and the institution of which the MP is a member.

  The British House of Commons, declared Enoch Powell, 'is a place where government speaks to the people and the people, through their representatives, speak to government' (Powell 1982, p. 169). This observation encapsulates a varied and dynamic relationship. It is a relationship that has developed over centuries and become far more complex since the advent of a mass franchise. It is a relationship that is at the heart of the British political system.

  Development of the Link

  Fundamental to the relationship between Parliament and citizen in the United Kingdom is a territorial base. The origins of the House of Commons are to be found in England in the summoning to the king's court in the thirteenth century of some knights from the shires (the counties) and then burgesses from the boroughs (leading figures from the towns). They joined the existing lords and churchmen who formed the court and were summoned in order to give their approval to the king's demands for additional taxation. The knights and burgesses eventually came to deliberate separately from the lords and churchmen, thus forming respectively the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

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  Parliament's Secret War

  • Veronika Fikfak, Hayley J Hooper(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Local trust has been described ‘as the most important capital for any UN peace-keeper’. See sources cited in T Dannenbaum, Translating the Standard of Effective Control into a System of Effective Accountability (2010) 51 Harvard International Law Journal 113, 121. The only way to correct mistakes that are made is ‘for the governed, through elec-tions and other elements of the open society … to inform the governors that their policies [are] not working and to propose how they might be changed’. Yet, ‘such feedback mechanisms only exist in scant form in the field of international policy’. 60 It is here that national parliaments can come in. The purpose and workings of the Westminster Parliament are a world away from the UN Security Council. Domestic legislatures, like the House of Commons, can and do play an inherently different role than the Security Council and in that function, its members can potentially address some of the deficiencies of the UN system and give life to the values of transparency, accountability, and participa-tion. The greatest advantage of parliamentary engagement is that MPs are elected to their post by the people and serve a limited term until re-election. Compared to members of the Security Council, which represent governments, MPs represent the people. They are accountable to the electorate and will spend extensive time in their constituency on constituents’ business. 61 In this regard, MPs are not as far removed from the people on the ground as diplomats or government representa-tives. Indeed, their primary role is not to give effect to government’s policies but to question and scrutinise these, and in so doing, to consider their constituents’ position and needs. MPs’ position is therefore different than that of diplomats in the Council. They do not represent the Government, but rather hold it to account. They enjoy a privileged position of having a close link with their constituents.

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  Constitutionalism and the Role of Parliaments

  • Katja S Ziegler, Denis Baranger, Anthony W Bradley, Katja S Ziegler, Denis Baranger, Anthony W Bradley(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Parliamentary Law and Parliamentary Government in Britain 25 belongs. Politically, it could be said that the Houses do not go much further than ‘advising’ the executive on the content of bills it is intent to pass through Parliament, and eventually do little more than ’consenting’ to their passing. This does not mean, as the enactment formula also states, that they do not confer democratic ‘authority’ upon the decision which is ultimately reached. In the modern representative democracy that Britain has become over time, this formula might prove an appropriate guide to the ‘role of Parliament’ in British ‘constitutionalism’. B. The Ambiguities of Victorian Government by Discussion The status of parliamentary debate seems to have dramatically changed with the inception of parliamentary government. An aspect of the ration-ality of parliamentary government is that it is meant to be a government by discussion. By the time of Bagehot and Grey, it had become trite that the House of Commons was the most important political body in the State. Many contemporaries interpreted the constitutional structure known as parliamentary government as a ‘fusion’ between the executive and the legislative power. Many observers were of the view, to quote the words of Sir Gilbert Campion, that, as a result, government had been transferred ‘to the floor of the House’. 28 The most likely interpretation of these words is not that ministers took their orders from the House after a debate, but that the way in which they governed increasingly came to depend on parliamen-tary support, and increasingly was subject to discussion in Parliament. More members seem to have been willing to take part in active parliamen-tary discussion, 29 and the profile of such a discussion became higher.

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  A.V. Dicey and the Common Law Constitutional Tradition

  A Legal Turn of Mind

  • Mark D. Walters(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  The Queen did make such a declaration, and indeed the sitting English Parliament was not even formally dissolved before the first British Parliament met. The Scottish peers and represen- tatives thus joined institutions at Westminster that already had, and would continue to have, a legal identity shaped in principle by English law. The Acts of Union 1800 provided similar results in relation to Irish peers and representatives. Dicey’s tendency to equate British with English constitutional law suggests that he may have accepted this point – which makes his failure to consider the old common law on Parliament perplexing. The compos- ition of Parliament as we now understand it, a body consisting of the monarch and an assembly divided into upper and lower chambers or houses, emerged gradually and became accepted in practical terms some- time in the fourteenth century. 26 That Parliaments consisting of the King, Lords and Commons were empowered to make law was acknowledged from time to time by Acts of Parliament. 27 According to one strand of thought, these statutes merely affirmed ‘the Ancient common Law of England’. 28 Parliament was, from this perspective, a common law concept. The constitution of Parliament was recognised and enforced by judges. 29 26 See in general Jeffrey Goldsworthy, The Sovereignty of Parliament: History and Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999). 27 Statute 15 Edw. II, c. 1 (1322): ‘Matters which are to be established . . . for the Estate of the Realm and of the People, shall be treated, accorded, and established in Parliaments, by our Lord the King, and by the Assent of the Prelates, Earls, and Barons, and the Commonalty of the Realm’); Act concerning Peter-pence and Dispensations 1533, 25 Hen.

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  Constitutional and Administrative Law

  • Roger Masterman, Colin Murray(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  For present purposes, only a brief introduction is necessary. Ministers are both individually and collectively responsible to Parliament. It is a constitutional obligation of ministers to subject themselves to parliamentary scrutiny to be held to account for their decisions and policies. Collectively, the government must enjoy the confidence of Parliament to remain in office. The twin doctrines of individual ministerial responsibility 68 and of collective Cabinet responsibility 69 – the latter generally now referred to as collective responsibility – are central to the political processes of parliamentary accountability. In generating a culture in which ministers routinely provide full and accurate information to Parliament, however, these conventions provide only one side of the coin. The other side is Parliament’s ability to extract information from government through questions to ministers, select committee enquiries and so on. THE PRE-EMINENT HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT Key Issues • The primacy of the House of Commons is a well-established feature of the relationship between the two Houses of Parliament. 66 V. Bogdanor, ‘Europe and the Sovereignty of the People’ (2016) Political Quarterly 348, 350. 67 T. C. Hartley and J. A. G. Griffith, Government and Law (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 1975) p. 195. 68 See Chapter 9. 69 See Chapter 10. 372 11 Parliament (I): The House of Commons • The House of Commons is dominant legally, as the Parliament Acts provide that certain legislative proposals might be put forward for Royal Assent notwithstanding the failure of the House of Lords to endorse them. • The elected House of Commons is also democratically superior to the largely appointed House of Lords. The House of Commons is the dominant House of Parliament. It is the more powerful house in legal terms; as a result of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 the Commons enjoys the capacity to pass legislation that has been rejected by the House of Lords.

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  Parliamentary Democracy

  Democratization, Destabilization, Reconsolidation, 1789-1999

  • K. Beyme(Author)
  • 2000(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  4 Functions of Parliaments The elective function is now the most important function of the House of Commons. It is most desirable to insist, and be tedious on this, because our tradition ignores it. Walter Bagehot Since Bagehot many catalogues of the functions of parliaments have been offered. Bagehot considered the elective function to be the most important one. The expressive function, the teaching function and the informing function were connected to the relationship between deputies and their voters. In modern typologies they are condensed under the rubric ‘the function of representation and articulation of interests’. The teaching function is no longer vested in the parties, but rather has shifted towards the media. The function of legislation was the last to be mentioned by Bagehot, although citizens have demonstrated in surveys that they associate parliaments above all with legislation. 1 Four functions have to be examined in order to assess the impact of parliamentary work on government – legislative relations. • The relationship between deputies and citizens: the representation and articulation of interests. • The relationship between parliament and government: the control- ling function. • The relationship to the needs of society: the legislative function. • The relationship of parliament and government: the recruiting function. 72 4.1 Representation and articulation of interests Representatives are in a twofold way related to the electorate: • To the nation as a whole. • To the sectoral interests of the people. The first relationship is combined with the fictitious assumption that the people of a nation are present in the actions of its government. 2 The symbolic constitution of the ‘whole’ 3 is not identical with representa- tion in civil law. Popular talk about the parties being represented in parliament is wrong because only citizens can be represented.

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