Evaluate the view that when it comes to fulfilling their respective functions, the House of Lords can be seen as more successful than the House of Commons.

Question 1

Agree: Secure majority governments make it more difficult to effectively scrutinise and amend legislation in the HoC

Answer 1

• Whenever parliament does pass a law that restricts their activities, they can simply pass another law to let them ignore the previous law. The Fixed Term Parliament Act, for instance, set a 2/3rds threshold for calling an election early. Unable to reach this threshold in 2019, parliament simply passed the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 with a simple majority to call an early election.
• FPTP system makes it so that an MP can be elected on a minority of the vote locally, and their party win a majority of seats in parliament on a minority of the vote nationally. That majority in parliament means they can pass any law they like.

Question 2

Disagree: The House of Commons has the power for vote of no confidence/rebellions:

Answer 2

• 2019 Rebellion against Theresa May: MPs voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal, which sets out the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU on 29 March.
• This caused Theresa May to resign in 2019.
• Vote of no confidence: If a government loses a confidence motion it can either resign in favour of an alternative government taking office or it can seek a dissolution. It’s very rare for a government to lose a no-confidence motion.
• That was in 1979, when the then Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan’s minority government fell and was replaced by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives at the subsequent general election.
• EVAL: Except for the period between 2011 and March 2022, when the Fixed-term Parliaments Act was in place, prime ministers have been able to call a general election whenever they want.
• That means they can *avoid a potential no-confidence vote by simply calling an election.

Question 3

Agree: Lords have become increasingly assertive in legislative scrutiny in the recent years

Answer 3

• Blocked the Sexual Offences Act 2000 + the hunting Act 2004, forcing the govt to employ the Parliament Act.
• The Blair and Brown governments were defeated only 7 times in the Commons but more than 400 times in the Lords.
• The removal of the majority of the hereditary peers has arguably given the House of Lords a greater sense of legitimacy and purpose.
• This has resulted in a more assertive chamber which is willing and able to cause government defeats. For example, during the passage of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2004-05 the Lords inflicted eighteen defeats over the detention of terrorist suspects.

Question 4

Disagree: Legislation Limiting the powers of the Lords

Answer 4

• The Parliament Acts are two pieces of law, passed in 1911 and 1949, that limit the role of the House of Lords in the legislative process.
• 1911 Parliament Act: This not only put into law the convention that the Lords could not interfere at all in tax and spending but also removed the Lords’ power to veto any bill, reducing it to a power only to delay it by up to two parliamentary sessions.
• Several decades later, the 1949 Parliament Act reduced the Lords’ power of delay to one year over most bills.
• Hunting Act 2004 : Parliament Act 1911 used to bypass the lords
• EVAL: Strong argument because of the Salisbury convention: It dictates that the House of Lords should not block or significantly delay government bills that are based on commitments made in the government’s election manifesto

Question 5

Disagree - Lords have no control of financial bills

Answer 5

• The Parliament Acts can also be used to pass money bills without the approval of the Lords. Money bills are pieces of legislation that relate to government expenditure and taxation – for example, the Supply and Appropriation Bills that authorise government spending on its policies. To be classified as a money bill, a piece of legislation has to be formally certified as such by the Commons Speaker.
• If a bill that the Commons Speaker has certified as a money bill passes the Commons but is not then passed by the Lords within a month of it being received, it can be sent for Royal Assent without the Lords’ approval. Money bills also cannot be amended by the House of Lords, and they have no power of delay (unlike with other bills as described above).