Have you ever caught yourself wondering why our country has a parliament? It’s always repeated that they have sovereign power over the laws within our country, but why is that? Is it as important to have a parliament as the textbooks say it is? This article will discuss the parliament and why it is necessary within the UK legal system.
UK Parliament
The UK Parliament makes up the legislative branch of the UK government. It is composed of two separate bodies; the House of Commons and the House of Lords, which makes it a bicameral parliament as it has two 'chambers'. The House of Commons comprises representatives who the people elect throughout the UK. In contrast, the House of Lords members are not elected. They both debate and amend news law and bounce off of one another until a decision is made. Each house represents parliament in different committees and councils throughout the legislature.
UK Parliament: House of Commons
The House of Commons is one of the two chambers of parliament. It is also known as the upper house. The members are elected through a public vote in general elections. Their main role is to debate and scrutinise proposed legislation and bring forth their own bills.
There are six hundred and fifty seats within the House of Commons. Most Members of Parliament (MPs) have been elected and gained a seat representing a political party, though some may run independently. MPs also represent their constituency alongside their political party. There are 650 constituencies within the UK parliament, and each MP represents a single constituency.
UK Parliament: House of Lords
The House of Lords is the second chamber within parliament, also known as the upper house. Alongside the House of Commons, they vote and debate upon proposed legislation. Scrutinising it and proposing changes where necessary. There is not a set number of seats, but in 2022, there were seven hundred and sixty-seven members within the House of Lords.
However, unlike the House of Commons, the House of Lords are not publicly elected. Most are nominated by those who have worked within the political and legal system throughout their lives, known as life peers.
Some members of the House of Lords hold their seats as hereditary peers – meaning that they inherit the position through their family. There are around 700 hereditary peers, but only 92 are entitled to a seat. The rest vote for who will sit in the House of Lords. The third type of seat held within the House of Lords is the Lords Spiritual, 26 of which the bishops of the UK hold.
UK Parliament's functions
The UK's parliament has three primary functions, passing legislation, parliamentary scrutiny, and providing ministers. Arguably the most important of these functions is to pass legislation. To do this, all proposed legislation must be deeply evaluated so that laws are fair. As such, parliament must debate and adjust them before they become legislation. The process in which this is done is known as the billing process.
Billing Process for a UK Act of Parliament
To pass an Act of Parliament in the UK a proposed bill needs to go through the billing process in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. While most bills begin in the House of Commons, they can start in either house. For both Houses the process is the same:
Second Reading: debate the bill, but no amendments are made
Committee Stage: amendments are made to the bill
Report Stage: changes are reported back to the relevant House
Third Reading: final debates and changes are made
Once approved by the House of Commons, the bill moves to the House of Lords (or vice versa) to undergo the billing process. If changes are made to the bill, it will go through the process again. If the houses don’t agree on the changes made, it will move back and forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords until they agree.
Finally, once the houses have agreed, the bill gets passed to the Crown to receive 'royal assent'. This is the final stage in the billing process, where the monarch signs the bill so that it becomes law.
Process of the passage of a bill, Wikimedia Commons
The Crown is the name given to the monarch who rules the UK. One of their duties is to seal bills, making them proper law. This is called getting Royal Assent.
Other parliamentary functions
Parliament is also there to hold the executive branch of the government to account. Making sure that they adhere to the constitution and don't abuse their power. Parliament is, therefore, part of a process known as parliamentary scrutiny. They do this in three primary ways. Firstly, through select committees which relate to governmental departments. Another way they do this is by posing questions to individual ministers on the matter, requesting either an oral or written response (e.g. a weekly Q&A in the House of Commons through the prime minister's questions). The final way is through a debate within the House of Lords or the House of Commons.
Another function of parliament is to provide ministers to represent and sit in cabinet as part of the executive branch of the government. To be a minister you must hold a seat in one of the Houses of Parliament. Lastly, the representation of the people is also a function of the UK parliament, though this only happens through the House of Commons, as this is the elected chamber of parliament.
Parliamentary scrutiny is one of the functions of the UK Parliament, whereby it scrutinises the policies and actions of the executive to ensure they are held to a high standard.
Members of the UK Parliament
People of the UK elect the Members of Parliament, or MPs, to the House of Commons in general elections. The public votes for the candidate they wish to represent their area within this process. These nominees usually represent a particular political party, such as the Conservatives or the Labour Party. How many constituencies a party wins determines how many seats they gain in the House of Commons. Therefore, every MP will represent their constituencies and their political party and will therefore often raise issues in the House of Commons relevant to their own constituency.
Petitioning Parliament in the UK
In the UK, one of the civil rights is that every individual is allowed to petition their parliament on matters of concern. If a petition gets enough signatures, it may persuade parliament to debate specific issues. Petitioning is a great way for parliament to understand and be made aware of the public's concerns. The ability to petition parliament is how the public can directly affect parliament.
There is a UK Parliament petitions website which organises petitions in the UK. If a petition reaches 10,000 signatures, then the government must respond. If it reaches 100,000 signatures, then there is usually a debate in parliament. The Petitions Committee in the House of Commons is responsible for organising this.
Over 600,000 people signed one recent petition that was debated in parliament. This petition was asking for the provision of a government ID to be required before opening a social media account. The petition was ignored by parliament as it would be too difficult to implement this law on all social media platforms.
A successful example is a petition in 2015 which argued that the government needed to accept more refugees and give greater support to refugees. This petition received over 450,000 signatures. After this, the government admitted 20,000 more Syrian refugees under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme and spent an additional £100m in humanitarian aid.
Devolution in UK Parliament
Devolution is an important feature of the parliamentary system of the UK.
Devolution is the sharing of powers, which can be legislative, executive, and judicial powers, to lower levels such as local or regional governments.
It is a particularly important feature for the UK as parliament, the executive and the judiciary share devolved powers with Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England. These powers are usually over more local matters such as education and the environment but differ depending on who the powers are devolved to.
Even though the parliament has devolved some powers to these regional and local governments, there are some powers that only the UK parliament has; these are called reserved powers. They include matters of criminal law, human rights, international and national trading laws, laws that concern the NHS, and powers over detention.
There are several reasons that parliament has devolved some of their powers to these regional and local governments. Firstly, there is often greater local knowledge at the regional and local levels, meaning these areas can be governed more effectively than by the central government.
Another reason that parliament shared devolved powers is that some of these areas, especially Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, wanted more control over their nations. For Scotland and Wales, there were successful referendums in 1997 to ask the people if they wanted devolved powers. However, Northern Ireland gained its devolved powers through the Belfast Agreement 1998, also known as the Good Friday Agreement 1998, which helped end the conflict between Ireland and the UK. Therefore, giving devolved powers to these nations within the UK was due to their desires for autonomy and independence from the central government.
The last reason that parliament shared devolved powers was to lessen the strain on the system, especially for the devolution of parliamentary powers within England.
Some people have criticised the devolution of parliamentary powers by saying that it weakened parliamentary sovereignty, which is an important principle in the UK. Though others say that even though it does reduce the power of parliament because they still hold reserved powers, they are still sovereign.
Parliamentary sovereignty is the idea that parliament is sovereign; that is, parliament is the country's highest legal authority.
Another criticism of parliamentary devolution in the UK is that giving regional governments increased independence and autonomy, especially Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, will give them a taste of freedom and leave them wanting more. Though others argue the opposite, that giving them this extra independence will satisfy them
Devolution is the passing of powers to regional or local levels within a state.
Parliament - Key takeaways
- The UK Parliament makes up the legislative branch of the government and consists of two separate bodies, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
- The main functions of parliament are to pass Acts of Parliament, to perform parliamentary scrutiny, and to provide ministers for the executive.
- The people elect the House of Commons’ members, whereas the House of Lords' are not.
- MPs sit in the House of Commons and can therefore sit on the cabinet and various committees, representing their political parties and constituencies.
- Petitioning parliament is a great way for the public to make parliament debate and decide on issues that the public is concerned about.
- Devolution has spread out the powers of parliament to other authorities (and parliaments) within the UK, although the central parliament still holds reserved powers.
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