Evaluate The View That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK.

Question 1

What does parliamentary sovereignty mean?

Answer 1

Remains the ultimate legal authority in the UK, it can pass laws on any subject and isn’t subordinate to any other body in law.

Question 2

P1: Parliament is Still Sovereign (Supreme Court) Rwanda

Answer 2

1. Judges cannot strike down laws with the HRA, just declare them incompatible with it and advise them to change the law.
2. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman introduced the Illegal Migration Bill in 2023 with a section 19 note stating there the bill would be incompatible with the Human Rights Act and international law but that the government wanted to proceed
   with it nonetheless.
3. The government passed The Safety of Rwanda Act in April
4. The act states that Rwanda must be considered a safe country for asylum seekers and that international law and the Human Rights Act must be put aside to allow for the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda, therefore removing the individual right
   to judicial review on these grounds.
   It also gives ministers the power to ignore emergency rulings against the act by the
   European Court Of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Question 3

P1: Parliament is Sovereign (EU)

Answer 3

1. The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union in 2020 significantly increased parliamentary
   sovereignty, as Parliament regained the ability to legislate on areas of policy previously
   controlled by the EU, whilst the European Court of Justice could no longer strike down laws
   passed by Parliament if they broke EU laws/regulations.
2. For example, they UK replaced EU free movement with a point based system, giving it full rule over immigration.
3. Can negotiate its own trade deals, for example the CPTPP.

Question 4

P1: Parliament is Sovereign because of its increasing ability to be able to hold the government to account.

Answer 4

1. It has become a convention that parliament is consulted before voting on major military actions.
2. Parliament can therefore be seen as having gained the prerogative power to wage war from the executive.This can be seen in 2013, when David Cameron backed down from calling for
   airstrikes in Syria after Parliament voted against them. This being said, Theresa May carried out similar airstrikes in 2017 without consulting Parliament.
3. Since 2010, there have been a number of weak governments with smaller/no majorities. Theresa May’s minority government was defeated thirty-three times, including three Brexit-related defeats in one day on 15th January 2019.

Question 5

P1: Not Parliament that is Sovereign, but the executive

Answer 5

1. Lord Hailsham called this an
   ‘elective dictatorship’.
2. The executive controls most of the parliamentary agenda and is able to use whipping and its large majority to ensure they very rarely lose votes.
   Tony Blair lost just four votes across his ten years as Prime Minister, whilst since the Second World War, over 99% of divisions (votes) in the House of Commons have been
   won by the government.
3. In the 2022/23 parliamentary session, the government introduced 56 bills. Of these, 43 (76%) received royal assent by the end of the session.
4. Employment Rights Bill was passed on its third reading with 332 in favour and 100 against.

Question 6

P1: Evaluation

Answer 6

1. Parliament clearly retains a lot of legal sovereignty and has reasserted its sovereignty in recent years, particularly since leaving the EU.
2. The executive does wield a significant amount of this sovereignty, this is due to its large majority in Parliament, so it does not necessarily contradict parliamentary sovereignty.

Question 7

P2; Devolved Bodies v Parliament

Answer 7

1. Have significant powers to make laws on a range of policy areas. he Scottish Parliament controls key public services including health and
   social policy, key welfare benefits (including disability living allowance) and education. It now also has significant fiscal powers, controlling income tax rates and bands and the right to 50% of all VAT raised in Scotland.
2. Cannot legislate on policy areas that are devolved without permission from the relevant devolved assembly. (Scotland and Wales Act).
3. In 2020, the UK Government aimed to introduce a ‘Shared Prosperity Fund’, a replacement
   for EU structural funding after Brexit. It planned to administer the fund centrally, bypassing the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Strong objections, the UK compromised and gave devolved governments greater influence over how funds would be allocated.

Question 8

P2: Despite devolved governments Parliament is still sovereign.

Answer 8

1. Despite the law relating to public services, which are devolved, and the S and W Parliaments withholding their consent, the UK Parliament passed the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023.
2. The devolved governments,
   viewing it as an infringement on their rights to manage public services and industrial relations, whilst arguing that it undermines workers’ rights. UK proceeded, citing the need for continuity of critical public services.

Question 9

P2: Parliament is still sovereign over devolved bodies, 2 recent actions.

Answer 9

1. The Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the consent of the UK Parliament is necessary to legislate for a second independence referendum in Scotland, despite the SNP arguing
   otherwise.
2. In January 2023, Rishi Sunak used a Section 35 Order to block Scotland’s proposed gender
   reform bill, which would’ve introduced self-identification for those who wanted to change
   gender and allowed 16 and 17 year olds to do so. This was the first time a UK government has used a Section 35 Order.
3. Section 35 can be used if the government believes it will have an adverse impact on UK-wide law.

Question 10

P3: Popular Sovereignty

Answer 10

1. The people ultimately have popular sovereignty, which they grant Parliament through elections.
2. If they aren’t happy with the government they will remove them through elections. This can be seen with the 2024, people overwhelmingly voted against the Conservative Party, therefore removing them from government and replacing them with the Labour Party.
3. A convention has developed that people should be consulted in a referendum before a significant change is introduced, could be argued people have legal sovereignty over key constitutional changes, as it would be politically unlikely that Parliament would defy the expressed will of the people.

Question 11

P3; Parliament is still sovereign despite referendums.

Answer 11

1. Whilst people have political sovereignty this has always been the case and parliamentary sovereignty refers to the legal sovereignty that is held by Parliament.
2. Referendums are only advisory. Parliament could decide not to implement a referendum result or to call another referendum to try and get a different result.