Parliament - Topic 2.1

Question 1

How is the House of Commons comprised?

Answer 1

The House of Commons is comprised of elected MPs that represent their constinuency and their party. These MPs either become frontbenchers or backbenchers. They comprise the legislative.

There are 533 English MPs, 59 Scottish MPs, 40 Welsh MPs and 18 Northern Irish MPs - Total: 650 MPs (as of 2019)

Question 2

What are the roles of front and backbench MPs?

Answer 2

MPs that have been invited by the PM to join the government as senior, junior or permanent private secretaries are frontbench MPs and are all bound by collective ministerial responsibility. They must present, and publicly support, the government policy of the frontbench.
The opposition party has a shadow frontbench, there to scrutinise the ruling frontbench.

Backbench MPs are there, first-and-foremost, to represent their constituents and raise issues they regard as significant. They also scrutinise the government, consider the merits of legislation and legitimise certain government decisions.

Question 3

How is the House of Lords comprised?

Answer 3

The House of Lords is comprised of unelected peers that represent possibly their industry that they are trained in, their background or social group or the spiritual and temporal realms. These peers are a part of a party but as they are unelected, peers can sit for life.

There are 270 Conservatives, 175 Labour peers, 80 Libdems, 184 Crossbenchers and 26 Bishops of the CofE and 50 other peers - Total: 785 peers (as of the end of 2023).

Question 4

What are the different types of the House of Lords peers?

And how do they work?

Answer 4

A life peer is an appointed member of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister.

An hereditary peer is a member of the aristocracy who has received their title from a parent and who therefore had the right to vote in the House of Lords (until the rules changed in 2001).

Question 5

How does the House of Commons scrutinise the government?

And how does it work?

Answer 5

Urgent Questions can be made by MPs if they deem that a minister needs to answer an issue. They then apply to the speaker and if the speaker decides that this is in the public interest then the MP must plead their case on what the government is doing on the issue.

Question 6

How does the House of Commons debate in Parliament?

And how do these debates work?

Answer 6

• The Backbench Business Committee provides backbench MPs with 35 days to take control of parliament and how business in the legislature is conducted. MPs can raise any issue with the committee to generate debate on areas that may be neglected by the government
• Adjournment Debates take place at the end of each day’s sitting. MPs can apply to the speaker to ask a minister a question. When the MP has asked and the other has responded, there is time for more questions to be raised but are limited to 30 minutes. Not many MPs usually attend but often bring up important issues for the public
• Early Day motions are urged by MPs to debate on a specific issue. Most don’t reach the floor
• Emergency Debates can be requested by an MP if the speaker allows it. They have 3 minutes to make a case to Parliament. The speaker then decides if the Commons will have the debate

Question 7

How can the public debate in Parliament via MPs?

Answer 7

Through the Petitions Committee, which was established to create debates on petitions that reached 100,000 signatures. MPs would then debate on these petitions.

Question 8

How legitimate is the House of Commons?

How do they claim legitimacy?

Answer 8

• All MPs are democratically elected by their constituents and therefore, the government are too
• Parliamentary bills require the consent of the Commons as the democratically elected chamber of Parliament
• A convention on whether Britain should commit troops to military action has existed since the Iraq War in 2003
• “The prerogatives of the PM and the Cabinet must be authorised by Parliament” has become a more pressing issue in recent years

Question 9

How does the House of Lords scrutinise the government?

Answer 9

The Lords scrutinise the work of the government through questions to ministers and through committees. The Lords will mainly focus on major social and political issues making recommendations to the government.

• Sessional committees deal with a particular issue from the last parliamentary session to the next session
• Ad hoc committees also investigate specific issues but at a certain time
• Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has limited time to examine secondary legislation and it highlights the issues in statutory laws and bills; they have 4 weeks
• Sessional HofL committee on climate change has held the government responsible to maintain its contributions to net zero emissions and other COP agreements

Question 10

How legitimate is the House of Lords?

How can they claim it? How can they not?

Answer 10

• They represent the spiritual realm and temporal realm (Bishops of the CofE)
• They cannot claim a legitimate role. They instead play an important role in reading and scrutinising legislation and their committees provide important information in all the important decisions, and can raise vital issues that could raise public concern as the Lords are less politically toxic and careerist