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Parliament - Coggle Diagram

- - - - It is rare for the government to loose votes and instead for legislation to be blocked the opposition must unite.
    - - Whips will attempt to to convince MPs to vote one way.
      - Sending letteres with the orders underlined to show importance (three lines showing must attend, must vote for the party line).
      - Goverment whips can offer positions in cabinet for loyalty.
  - - - Questions to ministers
        
        MPs can demand written or oral answers to questions and MPs are able to ask questions of the PM during PMQs, however, it is more political thearter now adays.
      - Select committees
        
        Each select committee shadows a government department.
      - Debates
        
        These can be powerful events that weaken the governments ability to take action.
        
        The creation of the BBBC has given MPs more power over the process of debate as the BBBC sets the agenda once a week.
        
        Debates in the HoL are normally higher quality then the ones on the HoC, but are less consquental.
  - - - Occosionallly people will be appointed to the HoL so that a PM can appoint them to cabinet, this was how Gordon Brown appointed Peter Mandleson to cabinet.
  - - - MPs are expected to issues raised by the electoate, they gets these compalints from holding surgaries.
    - - Party loyalty and the desire to win relection mean MPs may ignore local issues, however, good MPs can balance local demands and party demands.
      - The Commons does not represent society.
        
        34% of MPs are women.
        
        10% of MPs are from ethnic minorities and 13% of the general population are.
- - - - Arguments that backbench MPs have more power:
        
        The creation of the BBBC (Back Bench Business Committee)
        
        The BBBC may introduce legislation for debate that comes from the public, they do this if a petition reaches 100,000 signitures.
        
        The BBBC encrouges MPs to cooperate cross party as it responds to proposals that command cross party support.
        
        This is a committee that is made up of backbench MPs and is allowed to set the agenda for 35 days in the parliamentary calender.
        
        There has been an increase in frequency of backbench rebellions.
        
        On average coalition MPs rebelled 35% of the time, whilist the 2005-10 Labour government faced just 28% of the time.
        
        An increase in the use of urgent questions.
        
        Urgent questions enable MPs to raise an important matter that requires immediate answer from a government minister.
        
        Between 2009 and 2013 there were 3547 urgent questions, whilist between 2000 and 2009 there were 1234.
      - Limits on the powers of MPs
        
        MPs can draw attention to issues, but this deos not gaurantee action.
        
        The goverment has majorities on public bill committees and so although these committees can raise amendments, normally government amendments are the ones that are passed.
        
        Powers of patronage and party loyalty remain powerful forces on parliament, encrouging MPs to stick to the party line.
        
        This is weaker in the HoL because there are fewer areas of patronage and peers are normally experts in their field.
        
        Very important in the Commons.
  - - - Departmental select committees -- this is a select committee that scruntinizes the policy, administration and spending of each government department.
      - Each of these committees consists of at least 11 MPs and the composition reflects the balance of power in the HoC, this is the same for select committee chairs.
      - Committees may gather evidence, call in witnesses and hire experts to help them research an area of interest, they then produce a report which the government is expected to respond to (but that is it, no action is required) within two months.
      - Important or not
        
        Reasons for importance
        
        Committees have widerned there scope to scrunitse legislation and they hold appointment hearings for some public roles.
        
        Long-serving members of a committee can become more knowledgeable than government ministers who may only be in the role for 2 or 3 years.
        
        Committee charing has become an alternative carrer ladder.
        
        Select committees can have a direct infleunce on government policy.
        
        There work is respected because it is evidence based.
        
        Reasons for lack of importance
        
        The majority of select committee members and chairs are drawn from the government's party and tradiation has it that the important Tresuary, Defense and Forigen office committees are chaired by the government.
        
        Although they have more resources the committess can cover only a few topics om depth and tend to avoid investigations into long term, strategic issues.
        
        There is a high turnover rate for MPs in committes and they don't attend regually.
        
        The government accepts 40% of committee recomendations, but little genuine action is taken.
        
        The committees powers to summon witnesses is considerable, but not unlimited and witnesses can be blocked by government.
    - - The Public Accounts Committee which examines government expenditure.
      - The Liason Committee which consists of the chairs of all the select committees and questions the PM twice a year about government actions.
      - The Committee on Stanards oversees the work of the parliamentary commissoner on stanards (an offical in charge of regulating MPs conduct).
    - - Instead of shadowing a government department HoL select committees instead focus on scrunitising legislation and investigating particular issues.
      - An example of a HoL select committee is the Constitution Committee which examines public bills for their constitutional implications and investigates broad constitutional issues.
  - - - However opposition parties do have some power in holding the governemnt to account:
        
        They get to raise questions at PMQs (leader of the opposition gets 6 questions).
        
        They get to respond to the King's speech.
        
        They get to reply to the Chaneclor of the Exchequer's budget.
    - - This grants them a much wider reach.
      - However, they must appear like a government in waiting and therefore must not be to agreesive.
    - - 17 days go to the offical opposition (largest opposition party).
      - 3 days go to the seccond largest opposition party.
    - - This is a pot of money given to the opposition parties to help them fund staff and research for their MPs/shadow cabinet, this is done because unlike the government they don't have the civil service.
  - - - Pros
        
        Forces the PM to answer questions.
        
        Provides publicity to the opposition.
      - Cons
        
        Some argue that all it deos is show the personalities off of those involved.
        
        There frequent 'planted' questions from governement MPs that really just ammount to them ask "Deos the PM think they are doing a good job?".
    - - However, these are much less well kown then PMQs.
- - - - This means that the chancelor of the exchequer will sit in the House of Comomns.
    - - Confidence and supply -- This is an informal coalition agreement sometimes used in the event of a hung parliament where the largest party gets smaller parties to support the governemnt on key issues in exchange for something. It is not a coalition.
      - A formal coalition is where two or more parties makes an agreement to govern the country.
      - The House of Commons has the power to remove government through votes of no confidence.
      - The House of Commons also has the job of supplying government, convention has it that the PM and most of cabinet will be MPs.
  - - - Ways in which the HoL has been restricted:
        
        Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949
        
        1911 -- Lords couldn't delay money bills, Lords could no longer block laws and instead could only delay them by two years (expect laws that extend a parliaments term, they may still be blocked).
        
        1949 -- Halved the time of the Lords could delay laws.
        
        Salisbury convention
        
        This was an agreement between the Labour government and the leader of the Conservatives in the Lords agreed that the HoL would not block laws that were in the governments manifesto.
    - - It has the powers to amend bills.
      - Delay bills.
      - The Lords still have the power to enforce elections and this means that if a party tried to extend term limits, the HoL may block this (this is the only area where the Lords may still block the Commons entirely as the Parliament Act of 1911 enables this).
  - - - The removal of most herridatary peers and there replacement with life has increased the HoL's legitamacy.
        
        Life peers are normally harder working then tradiational herridatry peers and are more liekly to attend the HoL.
        
        Increased legitamacy and harder working members increases the chance the HoL will challange the government.
        
        In the 1980s the HoL blocked, on average, 14.1 bills per year; this has increased to 26.8 in the 2010s.
        
        However, it still has 92 heridatary peers and it can be argued that life peers still lack a large amount of legimacy.
      - The removal of most of the herridtary peers has meant that the tradiational power inbalance (towards the Conservatives) has been corrected.
        
        No party has a majority in the HoL and government's must therefore manage the Lords more closely.
        
        Cross-bench peers play an important role in holding the govenrment to account as they hold no loyalty to any political party (although peers have week loyalty anyway).
      - Some have begun questioning the Salisbury convention.
        
        Some peers have argued that when the government has a small share of the vote (as new Labour did in 2005) it should not apply.
        
        Some peers have argued that the Salisbury convention deos not apply when the governemnt deos not win a majority and must form a colation.
    - - The government usually holds a majority in the Commons and if it wishes to can force through legislation, blocking HoL amendments.
        
        Parliament may use the 1911 Parliament Act to force through legislation.
        
        Goverment can't use its majority to stop parliamentry 'ping pong', but can make it pointless.
- - - - Only the Chinese parliament is bigger.
- - - - Laws relating to HS2 are an example.