Parliament- Unit 2

Parliament- Unit 2

1. Composition

   • House of Commons
     • Has supreme legislative power, politically and legally dominant chamber. Only chamber which can remove the government of the day.
     • Composed of elected MPs which represent the constituency which has voted for them
   • House of Lords
     • Composed of Life peers, hereditary peers, Lords Spiritual.
     • Can delay non-financial bills from the commons for up to one year
   • Monarchy

2. Parliamentary Soveriegnty: Parliament is the supreme legislative body within the UK. It carries out representation, scruitiny, recruits and trains ministers, confers legitimacy on activities of government

3. Parliamentary Government: the government governs in and through parliament, based on a 'fusion' of powers between the legislative and executive. Distigushes UK's system from USA's.

4. Factors affecting Parliaments relationship to government

   • Extent of party unity: How divided the party is of issues can effect the outcome of votes ect which can affect the direction of parliament
   • Size of the government's majority
   • Impact of the House of Lords
     • Tax Credits undermined HoC

5. Performance of the Commons: affected by Blair and Brown, because of reforms

   • Liasion committee scuitiny??
   • Freedom of information act
   • Requirement that parliament must be consulted on the exercise of a variety of powers

6. 'Stage one' reform of the HoL (1999) removed all but 92 or the hereditary peers. Created more assertive second chamber. 'Stage 2' is being debated heavily, as it would involve replacing them with a revised second chamber

   • Benefits would include a more democratic legiticmacy, wider representation, improved legislation and more effective checks on both the commons and executive. BUT, loss of specialist knowledge, gridlocked government can occur and confusion about the location of democratic authority could occur