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British Parliament

1. The features of the current system of government in the UK. The notion of the Queen\King-in-Parliament. The relationship between the three elements of Parliament.

The system of parliamentary government in the UK is not based on written constitution. Political leaders of executive are members of the legislature and responsible to the elected assembly. Government's tenure of office depends on the support of a majority in HoC, where it has to meet informed and public criticism by an Opposition capable of succeeding as a government should the electorate so decide.

Queen-in-Parliament- is the supreme legislative authority in the UK, which consists of Queen+HOL+HOC.

They work separately; constituted on different principles; do different work in different places. Sometimes they meet together (on coronation or State opening of Parliament). As a law-making organ of State Parliament is a corporate body and with certain exceptions can’t legislate without the concurrence of all its parts.

2. The term of a Parliament under the Parliament Act 1911, the Parliament Act 2011. Sovereignty of Parliament. A change in the balance of power between the Houses since the beginning of Parliament. (The Parliament Act 1911, the Parliament Act 1949, the House of Lords Act 1999)

Parliament lasts for five years. It was fixed firstly in the Parliament Act 1911 (без of) and then it was fixed again in the Parliament Act 2011. Although Parliament may be dissolved and a general election held before the expiry of the legal term.

Parliament is sovereign, it is able to legislate as it pleases: to make and unmake any law, to legalize past illegalities and make void and punishable what was lawful when done + turn conventions into a binding law. If both Houses agreed it could prolong its own life of five years.

In the modern world the center of parliamentary power in the UK is popularly elected HoC, but until the 20th century the Lords’ power of veto over measures proposed by HoC was unlimited. The Parliament Act 1911 curtailed the veto of HoL to a period of 2 years for Bills passed by HoC in 3 successive sessions, and abolished the veto in connection with Bills dealing with expenditure or taxation. Then the Parliament Act 1949 reduced the delaying power of the Lords from 2 years to 1 and the number of successive sessions from 3 to 2. Nowadays the principal function of HoL is revision and that its object is to complement the HoC and not to rival it.

The House of Lords Act 1999 ended the right of all Hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. By this Act, the 92 Members were elected internally to remain until the next stage of the Lords reform process.

3. The major functions of the House of Lords. Crossbenchers.

Functions: to examine and pass legislation, to revise legislation sent from the HoC, to initiate legislation, to check on the government by scrutinizing its activities. HoL does it by asking questions, debating policy and taking evidence from ministers and others.

Crossbencher – independent or minor party member of the House of Lords, who doesn’t support one of the main political parties.

4. The classification of the House of Lords members before and after the Constitutional reform. Describe each group. The establishment of the Supreme Court

Before the Constitutional Reform 2005 Lords Temporal were classified into hereditary peers, life peers and Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, plus there were Lords Spiritual.

Lords Temporal – members of the HoL who are not an ecclesiastic, the peerage able to sit in the HoL.

Lords Spiritual – members of the H of L who sit in the H by virtue of their ecclesiastical offices.

Life peer – a person appointed for life by the monarch for good things (his achievements) he has done for his country;

Hereditary peer – a person who became the Lord because of his high social rank and can pass on his title to his oldest child. (a member of the aristocracy who has received his title from his father - ?)

Nowadays the core membership of the HoL is made up of Life Peers (appointed for their lifetime only). They were created under the Life Peerages Act 1958. Today there are 92 hereditary peers. Previously this group included all the peers of UK who have not disclaimed their peerage under the Peerage Act 1963, however, the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the HoL was ended in 1999 by the HoL Act, so we can clearly see that Life Peers are prevail nowadays.

They were the members of the HoL, but under the CRA 2005 the existing Lords of Appeal in Ordinary became in 2009 judges of the new Supreme Court of the UK and were barred from sitting or voting in the HoL until they retire as judges.

5. The functions of the Lord Speaker and the Speaker. How is the Speaker of the Commons chosen?

Lord Speaker presides over business in the Chamber. Unlike the HoC speaker, he doesn’t call on Members to speak and has no powers to call the House to order, because the HoL is self-regulating. He is elected by the House and is politically impartial.

The Speaker is the chief officer and highest authority in the HoC. Nowadays he is politically impartial figure. He chairs debates in the HoC. During debates he keeps order and calls MPs to speak. Also he represents the Commons to other authorities and chairs the HoC Commision.

He is elected MP by other MPs. New system of 2007- candidate must be nominated by at least 12 members, of whom at least 3 must be of a different party from the candidate. Each member may nominate only 1 candidate, The candidate should receive more than half the votes by secret ballot in the House.

6. The features and functions of the House of Commons.

The HoC is a representative assembly elected by universal adult suffrage and consists of men and women (MPs) from all sections of the community, (regardless of income or occupation)

The UK public elects 650 MPs to represent their interests. MPs (1)consider and propose new laws, (2)can scrutinize government policies by asking ministers questions about current issues either in the Commons Chamber or in Committees. Also MPs (3)may challenge the policy put forward by a minister or (4)may put forward amendments at committee stage, through the institution of parliamentary questions and answers as well as during adjournment debates or during the debates on “Opposition days”

7. The number of constituencies. Qualifications for an MP. General elections and a by-election.

There are 650 constituencies in the UK. During an election everyone eligible to cast a vote in a constituency (constituents) selects one candidate to be their MP. To stand as an MP a person must be aged 18 or over, a citizen of the UK, Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland, and not disqualified.

General elections commonly happen every 4 or 5 years, after a Parliament has been dissolved and a new one summoned by the Sovereign. In a general election, all constituencies become vacant and an MP is elected for each from a list of candidates standing for election. The candidate who gets the most votes becomes the MP for the area until the next election. The first-past-the-post system.

A by-election is hold when a seat in the HoC becomes vacant during the lifetime of a Parliament, because the sitting MP dies, resigns (by applying for the Chiltern Hundred), is elevated to the peerage, or becomes ineligible to sit for some other reason.

8. Describe each of the main types of legislation. (Government Bills, Private Members’ Bills, Private Bills, Hybrid Bills, primary legislation, secondary legislation, Statutory Instruments)

The 5 main types of legislation considered by Parliament are:

1) Government Bills – embody Government policy and are introduced by a Minister. These are the most important forms of legislation and take up the largest proportion of Parliamentary time. The Government’s Bills are often passed and become part of the law of the land.

2) Private Members’ Bills – introduced by an individual backbench MP or Peer of any political party. Little Parliamentary time is available for discussing these bills, their chances of being enacted and becoming law are much smaller

These 2 types of bills are also known as PUBLIC BILLS. They concern matters of general interest, and when passed they apply across the nation.

3) Private Bills – promoted by organizations seeking specific, usually local, powers

4) Hybrid Bills – are Public Bills to which elements of Private Bill procedure apply

5) Statutory instruments – are detailed rules or regulations. Type of secondary legislation. (Delegated legislation created by government ministers (orders, rules, regulations)

Most Public Bills apply to the whole of Great Britain: that is to England, Scotland and Wales.

Because the Scottish legal system differs in some respects from that of England and Wales, some Bills apply to Scotland or to England and Wales alone

9. The pre-legislative stage. The stages of the lawmaking process. Some variations on the procedure.

The preparation of legislation is often a lengthy process:

- Content and policy of the Bill must be approved by the Cabinet committee and then by the Cabinet.

- Reform may sometimes be preceded by Green or White Papers allowing pre-legislative consultation in Parliament. Consultation will also take place with various interest groups.

- By the end of this pre-legislative stage the main content of the Bill is settled although further negotiations continue throughout the passage.

Responsibility for drafting the Bill is on the Parliamentary Draftsmen, known as Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury.

1) First Reading, A purely formal stage – the title of the Bill is read out, an order is made for the Bill to be published and a date fixed for the second reading

2) Second Reading – the principles of the Bill are discussed on the floor of the House. The Bill is voted on.

3) Committee Stage – standing committee analyzes the Bill clause by clause. Detailed amendments are considered.

4) Report Stage – the Bill is reported back to the whole House with amendments. Further amendments, usually government sponsored, can be made at this stage.

5) Third Reading – House examines the principles behind the legislation. Only verbal amendments can be made.

Once a Bill has passed its Commons stage it goes up to the HoL where the same process is repeated, except that the Committee stage is taken on the floor of the House.

1. The HoL can pass the bill without amendments

2. If the Bill is amended in the HoL, these amendments must be considered by the HoC.

3. If the amendments are rejected by the HoC, the Lords must decide whether to insist on these. If no agreement is reached before the end of the Session, the Bill will fail.

Variations on the procedure:

1) Bills may start life in either House. Less controversial Bills start life in Lords, high profile political Bills in the HoC. HoC - all financial Bills.

2) Some bills have their Second Reading Stage in Committee. This procedure was introduced to save time and is used for non-controversial legislation.

3) Some Bills have their committee stage on the floor of the HoC. This procedure can be used for:

A – non controversial Bills where the committee stage would be purely formal

B – Bills passed in an emergency

C – major clauses of Financial Bills

In these cases Committee and Report Stages will be combined!

The Executive

1. The UK as a Parliamentary democracy (What form of government is the UK? Who becomes Prime Minister? What is the Cabinet responsible for? How does the traditional doctrine define the location of power in the UK? What are the sources of prime ministerial power?)

The UK’s government is a parliamentary government - a system of government having a real executive power vested in a Cabinet composed of the members of the legislature who are individually or collectively responsible to Parliament. Parliamentary democracy - system of the government where people elect representatives of the nation to make law and protect their interests.

The leader of the majority party in the Commons becomes Prime Minister. The Cabinet is responsible for overall government policy. The location of power lies in the balance between the Prime Minister, Cabinet and Commons. The Prime Minister can appoint and dismiss ministers. Parliament can be dissolved if the prime minister requests due to the defeat on a vote of confidence in the Commons or if the Monarch requests.

2. Collective and individual responsibility. . Criticism and the relaxation of the convention of ministerial responsibility.

Collective responsibility- all members of the Cabinet and other ministers must support the policy of the Government even if they have no share in drawing them up.

Individual responsibility- individual ministers must answer to Parliament for the conduct of the departments under their control, while civil servants must be loyal to ministers.

Responsibility is criticized as blurring rather than focusing responsibility. Collective responsibility allows ministers to shelter within the group and refuse to divulge information while individual responsibility shields the civil servant who actually took the decision.

Government functions are arguably too large, diverse and dispersed for it to be fair to hold ministers responsible in respect of matters not directly under their control.

Without this chain of responsibility the democratic system is flawed.

Civil servants are sometimes required to take public responsibility for their actions.They are managerially responsible for semi-independent ‘executive agencies’.

3. The duty of the Cabinet. Bagehot’s views of parliamentary government and the role of the Cabinet. How is the Cabinet being criticized nowadays?

The Cabinet is responsible for overall government policy.

Bagehot is famous for his analysis of the British political system claimed that: “The Cabinet was the essential link in the constitution between Parliament and the executive which gave the system its motive power”.

The leaders of the executive are part of Parliament and chosen by Parliament. It enables the executive to get its way but also enables Parliament to get rid of a failing government quickly. But the modern practices of strong party discipline and paid professional politicians mean that Parliament is likely to be subservient to the executive.

It also has been described as a ballast of constitution what is a factor of stability.

Nowadays the Cabinet is losing power because it cannot deal with the size and complexity of modern government. Power is dispersed through a network of departmental officials, ministers and politically influential outsiders from business, the media, and the professions.

4. The civil service (features and functions)

The system of parliamentary government depends upon a strong, permanent and impartial professional civil service. The functions of it are following: advising ministers, carrying out governmental instructions and ensuring continuity and expertise. Ballast and collective memory of constitution.