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Summary Parliament revision notes for AS/Alevel (Edexcel)
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Summary of 8 pages for the course Unit 1 - People and Politics at PEARSON (Parliament notes)
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Parliament● The British legislature (law making body) made up of the House of
Commons, House of Lords and the monarch
House of Commons
● The primary chamber of the UK legislature, directly elected by voters
● The percentage of women in the House of Lords is only slightly lower than
in the House of Commons. 191 women were elected in the 2015 general
election, making up 29% of the House of Commons, a record high
● Ethnic minorities make up the same percentage of members in the Lords
as in the Commons, which had 41 ethnic minority MPs in 201
● This suggests that an elected House of Lords might not necessarily be
more descriptively representative.
House of Lords
● The second chamber of the UK legislature, not directly elected by voters
● As of March 2017, there were 207 female Peers in the House of Lords,
● 25% of the 804 sitting total, up slightly from 181 in 2012. A report released
by Parliament in June 2016, claims that
● there are only 51 ethnic minority members of the House of Lords (6.4%)
compared with roughly 13% of the population
Backbenchers
● MPs who do not have a ministerial or shadow-ministerial position, they
occupy the benches in the debating chamber behind their leaders, their
main role is to represent their constituencies, they are also expected to
support the leaders of their respective parties
Opposition
● The official opposition is usually the party with the second-largest number
of seats in the Commons, its role is the criticise the government and to
oppose many of its legislative proposals, it also seeks to present itself as
an alternative government
Select Committees
● Consisting of backbench MPs, the composition reflects the make up of the
Commons, they investigate and report on the activities of the government
departments, their counterparts in the Lords such as the Constitution
Committee and the Science and Technology committee carry out topic
based inquires
Bicameral
, ● Two chambers - elected House of Commons and unelected House of
Lords
Parliamentary Privilege
● Legal immunity from civil/ criminal action allows MPs to raise important
and significant issues (and not be silenced by legal threats)
Public Bills
● Concern the whole country and are by far the most common type of
legislation
Private Bills
● Rare pieces of legislation that affect only a small number of people, more
common in previous centuries when couples could not get divorced
without an Act of Parliament
Hybrid Bills
● Mixture of the two, affecting the country as a whole as well as individuals
Functions of Parliament
● Passing legislation, scrutiny of the executive and providing ministers
● Three-Line Whip
● A written instruction to attend a vote issued to an MP, these are the most
important occasions for an MP to be present
How scrutiny is performed...
● Questions to ministers such as PMQs, select committees and debates
Confidence and Supply
● A type of informal coalition agreement sometimes used in the event of a
hung parliament where the minority partner agrees to vote with the
government on key issues, usually in exchange for policy concessions
Salisbury Convention 1945
● The convention whereby the House of Lords does not delay or block
legislation that was included in a government's manifesto
Constitutional Crisis of 1909
● Lords rejected the peoples budget as the new taxes on land and wealth
proposed by the Liberal government brought aristocratic outrage, was
resolved by the passing of the Parliament Act
Parliament Act of 1911
● Set out in law that the Lords had no right to delay money bills and its
power to veto non-financial bills was to be replaced by a power of delay
lasting two parliamentary sessions (equivalent to 2 years)
Lord's Powers after the Salisbury Convention
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