Revision: Parliament

What is parliament?

  • Bicameral:
    • Lower house: fully elected MPs.
    • Upper house: Peers, 26 Bishops and 92 hereditaries (aristocrats).
  • Sovereign:
    • Can legally legislate on any topic which they see fit.
    • No power can tell parliament what to do.
    • No parliament can bind its successors.
      (Dicey, A.V., 1885)

White male:

  • 8% of MPs elected in 2017 were PoC.
  • 32% were women.
  • "Somatic norm"; women and black MPs are "space invaders" (Puwar, 2004).

Disconnected from the people?

  • Can pass any law, but won't pass something unpopular. They derive authority from the people (Jennings, 1957).
  • Just over 50% believe that Parliament is not working for them, and that it is not representative of the public (Kalitowski, 2009).
    • But they care more about parliament reflecting their views rather than demographic.
  • Little trust in claiming legitimate expenses (Allen, 2011).

Dominated by the government?

  • Government legislation has a 95% success rate, compared to 7.5% for individual MPs (Kelso, 2011).
  • The executive's tight party management and timetable control thwarts parliamentary supremacy (Flinders, 2002).
  • Secondary legislation gives the government power, as parliament doesn't go into that kind of detail after passing primary legislation.

Legislative scrutiny

Laws and bills:

  • Very little time is set for Private Members' Bills, so most bills are introduced by ministers.
  • To become an Act, a Bill must be approved by both Houses of Parliament and given Royal Assent.

Readings:

  • First reading: formal introduction.
  • Second reading: a debate on the general principles. No amendments. If the vote is won...
  • Committee stage: Public Bill Committee (a group of MPs for that purpose) or Committee of the Whole House (all MPs sitting as a Committee) debate the Bill line-by-line, considers amendments.
  • Report stage: amendments approved in Committee are considered and voted on by the House.
  • Third reading: general discussion with no amendments allowed (Commons) or minor ones (Lords).
  • "Ping pong": back and forth between Lords and Commons, accepting, rejecting and further amending amendments.
  • Royal assent.

Inequalities:

  • 1911 Parliament Act: Lords cannot veto legislation concerned with taxes and public spending (money bills).
  • 1949 Parliament Act: Lords can only reject a Bill passed by the Commons for one parliamentary session (a year). If the Commons passes the same Bill in the next session, it cannot be blocked.
  • 1945-51 Salisbury Convention: Lords do not block legislation contained in government's election-winning manifesto.
  • By convention, Royal Assent is given to all Bills passed by both Houses.

Power of parliament:

  • parliament is, "much of the time, either peripheral or totally irrelevant" (King & Crewe, 2013).
  • Parliament doesn't make law but gives assent to it (Norton 1993).
  • Parliament exposes government legislation to scrutiny, to possible amendments, and to the potential to refuse assent (Kelso, 2011).

House of Commons:

  • House of Commons legitimates legislation, giving assent as the people's elected representatives to the laws governing them.
  • Allows for political argument and bargaining over the principle and content of legislation.
  • Political and technical accountability:
    • The former is about electoral support. Judged in the Commons: does it have support from elected representatives?
    • The latter is about expertise. Tested for quality in the Lords, by the experts (maybe apolitical?)

House of Lords:

  • Scrutinises legislation.
  • Unelected members are less worried about short-term gain (re-election).
  • Expertise.
  • No constituency responsibility means more time to devote to scrutiny.

Rebellion:

  • 2010-2015: Government MPs rebel on 30% more votes than in 1945-1964.
  • From 1970 onwards, every government has been defeated at least once by rebels.
    (Russell & Cowley, 2016).
  • Whips consult MPs, can withdraw the whip from rebels.
  • Governments avoid defeat by changing course (anticipated reaction):
    • Withdrawing legislation before being defeated.
    • Accepting amendments without a vote.
    • Offering a non-whipped vote. It's not the government's fault if MPs vote against them.

Executive scrutiny

  • Power to call for information.
  • Power to remove individual ministers from office.
  • Power to remove the government from office.

Demanding information:

  • Asking questions of ministers in writing, Question Time or debates.
  • Freedom of Information Act.
  • Inquiries by Select Committees.
  • Parliamentary privilege
    • MPs and Peers cannot be prosecuted for sharing information in debates. They would avoid invoking this privilege where national security is concerned.

Select Committees:

  • Monitor individual government departments. Some cover cross-cutting issues (i.e. the constitution, public spending...).
  • Backbench Business Committee decides what gets debated in non-government time.
  • House of Lords Committees look at cross-cutting themes (i.e. Science and Tech, the EU...).

Commons Select Committees:

  • Min. 11 members.
  • Membership divided among parties in proportion to share of MPs in the House.
  • Parties negotiate over who gets chairmanship.
  • Before 2010, chairs were appointed by the whips. Since then it's been elected by MPs.
  • Committee members are elected by their party colleagues.
  • Committee chairs paid extra £15.2k.
    • Before this, the only extra pay was to be promoted to minister via being a loyal backbencher. Chairs incentivise rebellion.
  • Oversee administration, expenditure and policy of government departments.
  • Take written and oral evidence from government, parliament, and beyond. Appoints speciality advisers.
  • Conduct (non-binding) pre-appointment hearings with candidates for public appointments.
  • Have (theoretical) legal power to compel outsiders to give evidence (generally not used).
  • Protected by parliamentary privilege.

Benton & Russell (2012):

  • 44% of Select Committee recommendations get implemented (14% for major policy change).
  • Influence how MPs vote (2005 Health Committee on smoking ban).
  • Identify new issues of public concern (2005 Treasury Committee on the end of free ATMs).
  • Influence government legislation (2001 Public Administration Committee on the civil service code).

Classic Ministerial responsibility:

  • Individual ministers are responsible to Parliament for their own conduct and that of their departments.
  • 1832-1867 Reform Acts meant ministers had to work hard to keep confidence of MPs:
    • 1832 Act removed Crown influence from elections.
    • From 1867 modern, disciplined parties formed (1870 formation of Conservative Central Office).
    • Ministries make peace and war at the pain of instant dismissal by parliament from office. Parliament makes or unmakes ministries (Hartington, 1893, quoted in Flinders, 2002).

Modern Ministerial responsibility:

  • Strong parties protect ministers from individual scrutiny, unless they lose party support.
  • Governments use procedural powers to prevent debates about competence of individual ministers.
  • Ministers resign in cases of personal fault, or more rarely for departmental fault (Woodhouse, 2004).
  • Ministerial resignations generally repair damage to government popularity by ministerial failure (Dewan & Dowding, 2005).

Classic Confidence in the House:

  • Convention was that retaining confidence meant winning:
    • explicit confidence votes: "this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government."
    • implicit: approve Queen's Speech, the Budget, or major policy.
    • designated: any issue the government identifies as a matter of confidence.
  • Defeat on any of these means a government is expected to resign. Can then recommend a new PM or call an election.

Modern confidence in the House:

  • Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011:
    • Originally the government planned to keep the conventions on confidence as they were.
    • During the legislative process, the Lords pushed for the government to specify the rules for confidence votes.
    • PM defeated on implicit or designated votes can still resign, but cannot call a fresh election.
    • Only defeat on an explicit vote allows the PM to call an election.

Confidence votes...

  • provide a means for MPs to remove a government if it loses support.
    • Unlikely in a majoritarian system. Last happened in 1979.
  • Underpin parliamentary bargaining.
    • Explicit or implicit threat of confidence votes changes government behaviour.
    • Discourages rebellious MPs.
  • Parliament's ability to punish or constrain the government depends on these powers.
  • There is some legislation constraining government power, but conventions and no confidence votes matter more.
  • Courts interpret and apply legislation, but parliament interprets and applies conventions.
  • What happens if the government and parliament disagree over powers governed by convention depends on specific circumstances of the case (i.e. Brexit).
    • Are MPs willing to use their powers against the government? And is the government willing to take the risk of going all the way to a non-confidence vote?
  • Parliament is theoretically sovereign, though subject to political, practical and legal constraints.
  • Its key role is in legitimising the government, keeping it in power, supporting its legislation.
  • Plays lesser roles in shaping legislation, monitoring executive action, constraining government conduct.
  • Holds government to account in theory.
  • Government uses partisan advantage and procedural power to influence parliament in practice.