(9) What are differences between Government and Parliament?

Government
1. What or who is Government?
  1. Government is a group of elected individuals who control the operation of the state at any particular time. They are known as the ‘Executive’.
2. How are the Government held to account?
  1. Select committees
    1. They hold the government to account
    2. There arer 15 departmnent so 15 selected committees for the house of commons
    3. There are 4 major selected committees for the house of lords they are:
      1. EU
      2. Constitution
      3. Science and technolgy
      4. Economic affairs
    4. They can force a minister to answer question in a commitee
    5. They choice to talk about all the topic of the goverment year
    6. The government must respond with in 2 months to all committee reports
    7. Selected committees represent what the general public want to know
Parliament
1. What is Parliament?
  1. Parliament is the name to describe the House of Commons and House of Lords (strictly in the UK). Also known as the ‘Legislature’ – it decides whether proposals should be implemented or not.
2. What is the role of the HoC?
  1. The UK public elects 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent their interests and concerns in the House of Commons.
  2. MPs consider and propose new laws, and can scrutinise government policies by asking ministers questions about current issues either in the Commons Chamber or in Committees
3. What is the role of the HoL?
  1. The House of Lords is the second chamber of the UK Parliament. It works with the House of Commons to
    1. check and challenge the actions of the government
    2. make laws
    3. provide a forum of independent expertise
  2. The House of Lords Chamber spends about 60% of its time on legislation; the other 40% is spent on scrutiny – questioning Government and debating issues and policy. Committee work takes place outside the Chamber.
4. How do the procedures of the two houses compare?
  1. More votes taken in the Commons
  2. More activity in the House of Lords – make more use of committees
  3. Debate of a bill continues as long as the Lords feel necessary – in the Commons only a limited number of amendments can be discussed before they are guillotined – run out of time
  4. There is a 15 minute limit on backbench speeches – forces Lords to be focused.

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(9) What are differences between Government and Parliament?

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	Created by Marcus Danvers over 10 years ago