The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
commonly known as the British Parliament, is the supreme legislative body in the
United Kingdom. It is located in Westminster, London. Parliament possesses
legislative supremacy. At its head is the Sovereign.
The parliament is bicameral, with an upper house, the House of Lords, and a
lower house, the House of Commons. The Queen is the third component of the
legislature.
The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification
of the Treaty of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of
Scotland passing Acts of Union. It has been called ‘the mother of parliaments’, its
democratic institutions having set the standards for many democracies throughout
the world. Thus, the UK Parliament is the largest Anglophone legislative body in
the world.
In theory, supreme legislative power is vested in the Queen-in-Parliament. In
practice in modern times, real power is vested in the House of Commons, as the
Sovereign generally acts on the Advice of the Prime Minister, and the powers of
the House of Lords have been limited.
Composition and Powers
The legislative authority, the Crown-in-Parliament, has three separate elements:
the Monarch, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. No individual may
be a member of both Houses, and members of the House of Lords are legally
barred from voting in elections for the members of the House of Commons.
The British Monarch has all authority, but no power. The sovereign appoints the
Prime Minister, and every year opens the sessions of Parliament, in a historical and
ritual ceremony called the State Opening of Parliament.
The second major function of the Sovereign is to sign new laws passed by
Parliament.
The last major function of the Sovereign – in the parliamentary context – is his
or her weekly meeting with the Prime Minister. By tradition, the latter informs the
Sovereign, who is the head of state, about important affairs of state and
government business, and asks the Sovereign for his or her advice.
The House of Lords consists of about 750 members (a variable number). The
Lords are basically divided into 2 large groups of Lords Temporal and Lords
Spiritual. The Lords Temporal comprise Life peers and Hereditary peers. The latter
ones inherit their titles from the ancestors, from the ‘nobility’ of the UK. There are
about 96 of them. Life peers are mostly former members of the House of
Commons, or former senior officials, judges, or former business leaders or trade
union leaders: each government and opposition party has the right, each year, to
propose new Life peers. The Lords Spiritual are represented by 26 Bishops of the
Anglican Church.
As it is an unelected element of Parliament, it does not have the same powers as
the House of Commons, but it retains the right to revise and scrutinize the
Government’s actions and legislation. Its independent mind and extensive
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expertise form a crucial check on the power of the executive in Parliament. The
House of Lords plays an essential role in improving bills: highlighting potential
problems and ensuring they will be workable laws.
The House of Lords cannot block bills proposed by the Government in the
House of Commons, and can only delay some bills. Actually, this prerogative is
rarely used, only in exceptional cases, for the Lords to act against the wishes of an
elected government would be constitutionally unacceptable.
In 2012 the Cameron Government proposed to change the status of the House
of Lords, making it into a largely elected chamber, but the proposal does not
terribly interest in the British public.
The House of Commons is the main House of the British Parliament. It is
composed of 650 members (Members of Parliament or MPs) elected by universal
suffrage. The life of Parliament is 5 years.
According to an ancient tradition, MPs are elected by universal suffrage under a
system of relative majority in one round of voting. This means that the candidate
with the most votes in an election is elected, whether or not she has an absolute
majority of votes.
Elected MPs do not have a deputy, so in the event of the death, resignation or
removal of an MP, a ‘by-election’ must be called. Each MP represents a territory,
or constituency; the link between an MP and his constituency is symbolically and
historically very important, and in the House of Commons, members are not called
by their name, but by the name of the constituency, from which they have been
elected (or, if they are government ministers, by their function).
The Chairman of the House of Commons is known as the ‘Speaker’, and he or
she presides over each parliamentary session, deciding who can speak.
All legislation must be passed by the House of Commons to become law.
Besides, it controls taxation and the supply of the money to the government.
Government ministers (including the Prime Minister) must regularly answer
questions in the House of Commons. Moreover, there are a number of select
committees that scrutinize particular issues and the workings of the government.
These are also mechanisms that allow members of the House of Commons to bring
to the attention of the government particular issues affecting their constituents.
Word study
1. Study the following notions related to the British Parliament, be ready to
explain each of them, consult additional reliable sources for more exact
information if necessary. Use these lexical units in the examples of your own.
1. legislative supremacy
2. the Queen-in-Parliament
3. Lords Temporal
4. Lords Spiritual
5. Life peers
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6. Hereditary peers
7. the House of Commons
8. the House of Lords