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In the politics of the United Kingdom,
the House of Commons is the dominant component of
the bicameral Parliament, the other half being the House of Lords. It consists of 659 Members
of Parliament (MPs) since 1997, each elected by citizens of an electoral constituency to represent that constituency in the
House. The House of Commons meets in the Palace of
Westminster.
Elections
Constituencies
The United Kingdom is divided into constituencies by the four
permanent independent Boundary Commissions, for England and Wales, for Scotland, and for Northern Ireland. On average
each MP represents 69,281 people in England, but fewer in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, although there is considerable
variation in the population and size of constituencies. The constituency boundaries are reviewed roughly once a decade although
there can be inter-review changes as needed. The last general review increased the number of MPs from 651 (1992) to 659 (1997),
England has 529, Scotland has 72, Wales has 40, and Northern Ireland 18. After the next, fifth, review the Boundary Commissions
will be absorbed into the Electoral Commission, established
in 2000. Following the creation of the Scottish Parliament in
1999, the over-representation of Scotland previously justified by the lack of a separate Scottish Parliament is under review.
Provisional plans have appeared for the reduction in Scotland's representation in the UK House of Commons from 72 MPs to 59
MPs.
General Elections
Whenever the Parliament is dissolved by the monarch, an election is due. Each constituency returns one member based on the
First-past-the-post election system. A citizen of the
United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, or Commonwealth nation over the age of twenty-one may be elected. However, the following are barred
from becoming members:
- Members of the House of Lords
- Lunatics
- Those holding some offices of trust and profit under the Crown (including judges and
civil servants, but not including Ministerial positions)
- Members of a legislature of a non-Commonwealth
nation
- Those convicted of treason and not pardoned
- Those found guilty of electoral malpractice during the past ten years
- Those serving a prison sentence of one year or more
- Undischarged bankrupts
There also exists a common law precedent that those who are both deaf and
mute are disqualified, but this has not been tested in recent years and is unlikely to be upheld by the courts.
The party winning a majority in the House forms a Government, with its leader becoming Prime Minister. (The Prime Minister and other members of the cabinet are theoretically appointed by the
monarch. By constitutional convention, the monarch always appoints the leader of the majority party.) The
Prime Minister and a majority of Ministers are members of the House of Commons, though some are members of the House of
Lords.
The Parliament's term may last no more than five years. However, the Parliament is almost always dissolved earlier. The
monarch chooses the time for dissolution upon the advice of the Prime Minister, which is considered binding. Also, if the House
of Commons passes a Motion of No Confidence, then the
Government must resign or the Parliament must be dissolved. The defeat of a major item of legislation, such as the annual Finance
Bill, also leads to either resignation or dissolution.
By-Elections
Between General Elections, vacancies often occur. These are filled through By-elections within the constituency whose seat is vacant.
Vacancies occur for several reasons. Strangely, resignation is not one of them; members of Parliament are not permitted to
resign. If, however, a member of Parliament wishes to leave office, he or she can take advantage of the fact that certain Crown
officers are not allowed to serve in the House of Commons. A member wishing to "resign" merely applies to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for appointment to the
office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or to the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of
Northstead. By tradition, the Chancellor does not refuse such applications. The offices do not involve any real duties; they are
used for the sole purpose of allowing resignations. One holder retains an office until another member wishes to resign and is
appointed to that office. See: Resignation from the British House of Commons.
Similarly, if a member is appointed to a "real" Crown office, such as a
judicial office, his or her seat immediately becomes vacant.
If a member is detained for a mental disorder, the Speaker may send two specialists to observe that member. Six months after the original
visit, a second visit is made by the same specialists. If the specialists declare on both occasions that the member is suffering
from a mental illness, the seat is declared vacant.
If a member is declared bankrupt by a court, then six months must elapse without a change in the court's order for the
bankrupt member's seat to be declared vacant.
Otherwise, a seat may be declared vacant for death or for elevation to the peerage
and appointment to the House of Lords.
Regardless of how a vacancy occurs, the by-election cannot be held unless the Clerk of the Crown issues writs of election,
which cannot be done unless the Speaker issues a Warrant authorising the same. The Speaker, in turn, may not issue a Warrant
unless the House approves a motion asking him to do so. The motion is traditionally moved by the Chief Whip of the party that formerly held the seat. However, the party may delay the motion as long as it
wishes. If no motion is approved by the time of a General Election, then no by-election will be held, and the General Election
will fill the seat.
There are two exceptions to the requirement that the House must approve a motion before the Speaker makes his Warrant. If a
vacancy occurs due to the death of a member, or the appointment of that member to the House of Lords while the House of Commons
is in a recess, two MPs certify that the seat is indeed vacant, the Speaker may issue his Warrant without any motion being
approved.
Composition
As of 26 June 2004
Procedure
Sittings
The House of Commons meets at the Palace of
Westminster in London. The Commons Chamber is decorated in green and is rather simple, compared to the grand Lords Chamber.
The Chamber consists of two sets of five rows of benches, one set on either side of the center aisle (which for historical
reasons is always two and half swords lengths wide), which is known as the "gangway." The Speaker's chair is at the front end of
the House; the members of the Government sit on the benches on the Speaker's right, while the Opposition occupy the benches on
the Speaker's left. Oddly, all members cannot fit in the Chamber, which can seat only 437 of the 659 members. Late-arriving
members are obliged to stand in the entrance area.
Formerly, the Commons met only in the Commons Chamber. However, due to recent reforms, the House also sits (for now, on an
experimental basis) in a chamber called Westminster Hall. When sitting at Westminster Hall, only uncontroversial and non-partisan
matters are usually discussed.
The House of Commons sits on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and on most Fridays. Saturday sessions are only called
during national emergencies; the last such occurrence was during the Falklands War.
The House holds a number of recesses each year. The longest recess is the Summer Recess, which lasts from mid-July to
mid-October. The other recesses, including the Easter, Whit, and Christmas Recesses, usually last for one to two weeks.
The Speaker sits facing the voting lobbies at the other end of the chamber. Government ministers (known as "front benchers") sit
on the front row of the Government side on the side of the gangway nearest the speaker. Shadow ministers from the oppposition sit
directly opposite. The minister and shadow minister speaking at a debate sit in the middle of the row, behind the "despatch
boxes", two raised boxes on the table in the middle of the chamber on which they may rest papers. The chamber layout gives rise
to the name "backbencher" - an MP who is not a minister or shadow minister and thus one who must sit further back.
Above the main body of the chamber is a ring of viewing galleries. The Strangers Gallery is set aside
for members of the public who arrive at the House of Common without invitation. A second gallery is reserved for those who have
received an inivitation from their MP. These galleries are above the Government benches. Opposite them is the Press Gallery, from
which parliamentary sketchwriters view proceedings.
Radio coverage of House of Commons coverage was permitted in 1968. The first live broadcast occurred in 1975. Regular live
coverage began in 1978. Television coverage was permitted in 1989. In 2000 the BBC began broadcasting BBC Parliament, a non-analogue terrestrial television channel devoted solely to
parliamentary affairs, with a bias towards the House of Commons when it is in session.
In 2004, a group of protestors opposed to the war in, and
occupation of, Iraq sat in the public gallery during Prime Minister's Questions. One-by-one they interrupted proceedings by
shouting anti-war slogans. Once one protestor was removed by security officials another protestor would begin shouting.
Eventually the Commons was suspended and the gallery cleared. The session later resumed with the gallery empty. Partly in
response to this event, but also because MI5 had specific intelligence that the House of
Commons was vulnerable to a chemical or biological weapon attack, a glass screen was erected in front of the public gallery
during the Easter recess of 2004.
The screen was ineffective however when other protestors from Fathers 4 Justice obtained permission as the guest of Baroness Golding to sit in the unscreened area. They were able to throw flour bombs into the chamber, one
of which hit the Prime Minister. See Fathers 4 Justice House of Commons protest.
Speaker
See main article: Speaker of the House of Commons.
The House of Commons elects a Speaker, who controls the day-to-day running of the House and is empowered to call
on members to speak during debates. He may also discipline members who fail to observe the rules of the House, which are known as
the Standing orders.
There are three deputies to the Speaker: the Chairman of Ways and Means, the First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means, and the
Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means. The Speaker's deputies take their title from the Committee of Ways and Means. Even
though the Committee has been abolished, the Speaker's deputies retain their titles.
The Speaker is traditionally non-partisan. Upon election, he or she resigns from the political party, and by convention the
major parties traditionally do not oppose the re-election of the Speaker in his/her constituency. The lack of partisanship
continues even after the Speaker leaves office. If a former Speaker is appointed to the House of Lords, he or she sits as a crossbencher.
Debate and Discipline
Members may only speak if called upon by the Speaker. To get the Speaker's attention, a member must partially rise. There is
no recourse if the Speaker fails to call upon a particular member. Nonetheless, it is traditional that the Speaker alternate
between calling Government and Opposition members.
Debate must be addressed to the Speaker. If a member wishes to refer to a person other than the Speaker, he or she must do so
in the third person. Traditionally, members refer to each other not by
name, but by their constituencies. The form used is the Honourable Member for... or, in the case of Privy Counsellors, the Right Honourable Member for... Also, members may
refer to office-holders by their titles (for example, the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition.)
The Speaker is required to keep discipline in the House. If a member deviates from obeying the Standing orders, the Speaker may warn that member. If the member disregards the warning, the Speaker
may order the member to leave the Palace of Westminster for the remainder of the day. Should the member continue to disobey the
Speaker, the Speaker may invoke a power known as "naming" by stating, "I name Mr. X" (substituting, of course, the actual name of
the member for X.) Then, the Leader of the House or another senior member may move "that Mr. X be suspended from the service of
the House." If the motion is agreed to, then the member is suspended for five days if the offence was his or her first during the
session. For a second offence during the same session, a twenty day suspension applies. For a third offence, the House determines
the suspension period. If a suspended member fails to leave the House, he or she may be suspended for the entire session.
The ultimate punishment that the House may impose is expulsion. Expulsion, however, does not prevent an individual from
running for election again. Thus some members have been expelled more than once. There were only three expulsions during the
twentieth century.
Voting
As the formal checks on the power of the House of Commons are very limited, a party with a majority in the House has very few
formal limits on its ability to change government policies. In addition, Members of Parliament almost always vote with their party. The reasons for this are complex, but
derive partly from natural party loyalty, and partly from job security: MPs who vote against their party are unlikely to reach
ministerial rank, and may be deselected as official party candidates in the next
election (though in some circumstances, an MP may be threatened with deselection if he or she does vote with the party). In
addition, unlike presidential systems, a government cannot function without a majority support of the House of Commons, hence the
parties have much more interest in ensuring that people do not vote against the party either by pressuring MPs to change their
vote, or more often by modifying legislation to avoid an adverse vote.
There are two cases in which MPs will vote against party lines. One is when a party announces a free vote over an issue of conscience in which invidividual members are allowed to vote according to their
personal beliefs; in this case, there is no official party line to vote for or against. This is the case ethical issues like the
death penalty, abortion
etc. MPs representing the majority party occasionally may also vote against their party in large numbers where there is
widespread discontent among backbenchers over the government's policies. Since the late 19th century, major backbench rebellions
have only occurred once every few years, most recently in 2003 when Labour MPs voted
against Tony Blair's support of the United States over the Iraq war. Smaller rebellions,
in which only a handful of back benchers vote against their party, are more common when the Government has a very large majority.
The Labour Government suffered 16 back bench rebellions in the 1997-2001 Parliament.
Because the outcome of votes are largely predetermined, parliamentary debates are intended less to change the outcome of
pending legislation, than for the party in power and those out of power to appeal to the public for the next election.
Even though the outcome may be predetermined, the House must vote on every motion. All motions are originally subject to a
voice vote. The Speaker then gives his opinion as to which side won the voice vote. If his assessment is challenged by any
member, then a division occurs, signified by the ringing of the
Division Bell. On either side of the House Chamber is a division lobby. Those who wish to vote "Aye" (yes) enter one
lobby, while those who wish to vote "No" enter the other. As members then exit the lobby and reenter the Chamber, their votes and
names are recorded by tellers and clerks. The tellers then announce the numbers of Ayes and Noes to the Speaker, who then
announces the result to the House.
Question Time
One important characteristic of the House of Commons is Question Time, in which members of both the party in power and the
opposition parties have a weekly opportunity to ask questions of Cabinet ministers including the Prime Minister. Questions are subject to several rules; for example, questions must relate to the
official government activities of a Minister, rather than his activities as a leader of a party or as an MP. Questions may
receive either an oral or a written answer.
Oral questions are part of one category of questions. Under the rules of the House, Question Time, when oral questions may be
asked, is the first hour of business on weekdays other than Friday. Question Time occurs in the main chamber rather than in
Westminster Hall. The clerks of the House must be notified of questions a certain number of days prior to the day on which it
will be asked. The clerks then use computers to randomly select a limited number of questions that will be permitted, for
Question Time is not an unlimited period. When the Speaker calls on a member during Question Time, the member need only state his
question's number, for the minister will already have been notified of it. Then, the member who asked the original question may
ask one supplementary question. Next, other members may pose their own supplementary questions. There is no formal limit to the
number of supplementaries; the Speaker merely stops recognising members who wish to speak when he feels that enough
supplementaries have been asked.
Government departments are assigned certain days for questions by rotation. More than one department may be questioned on a
given day. Usually, each department is questioned for about an hour per month. The Prime Minister, however, is subject to about
twice as much questioning, for he answers questions for a half-hour each Wednesday.
Another category of questions is urgent questions. Instead of notifying clerks days earlier, as with oral questions, a member
need only notify the Speaker that he intends to ask an urgent question. Only if the Speaker agrees that the question is one of
public importance, and is indeed urgent, may the question be asked.
Written questions, the last category of questions, are by far more numerous than any other type of question. If the MP
requires an answer by a specific date, notice of at least two days must be given to ask the written question. Alternatively, the
MP may decide not to name a date for an answer, in which case the Minister usually replies within a week. Responses are not only
to the member who asked the question; they are instead published for the use of all members.
Committees
Unlike in, say, the United States Congress,
committees in the House of Commons are not very powerful, and most of the review of legislation occurs in the Cabinet. There exist several types of committees:
Standing Committees, Select Committees (including Departmental Select Commmittees and Domestic Committees), Joint Committees, and
others.
Most bills are considered by Standing Committees.
Though "standing" may imply permanence, the membership of Standing Committees is constantly changing. There is no limit to the
number of Standing Committees in existence at any one time, though there are normally no more than ten. These committees are
referred to by a letter of the alphabet from A to H, or as the First or Second Scottish Committee, which deal only with bills
relating to Scotland. However, the Scottish Committees are essentially obsolete due to the introduction of a separate Scottish Parliament. When a bill is due to be referred to a certain
Standing Committee, the Committee of Selection meets and chooses sixteen to fifty MP's to serve as Committee members; the number
of members from a particular party is approximately proportionate to that party's membership in the whole house.
Departmental Select Committees scrutinize government activities. Though a bill may be referred to a Select Committee, this
method is rarely used. There are eighteen Departmental Select Commmittees:
- Constitutional Affairs
- Culture, Media, and Sport
- Defence
- Education and Skills
- Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
- Foreign Affairs
- Health
- Home Affairs
- International Development
- Northern Ireland Affairs
- Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
- Science and Technology
- Scottish Affairs
- Trade and Industry
- Transport
- Treasury
- Welsh Affairs
- Work and Pensions
Each committee (except for the Science and Technology Committee) correlates to distinct a government
department. However, some committees scrutinize more than one department. For example, the Home Affairs Committee oversees
both the Home Office and the Law Officers' Department.
The Committee of Selection chooses the members of the committees, which then choose their own chairmen. Committees consist of
eleven members each, except for the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which consists of thirteen members, and the Environment,
Food, and Rural Affairs Committee, which includes seventeen members. As with standing committees, the number of committee members
from a particular party is approximately proportionate to that party's membership in the whole house.
Select Committees known as Domestic Committees oversee the services provided to members of the House. There are four Domestic
Committees (each consists of nine members):
- Accommodation and Works Committee
- Administration Committee
- Catering Committee
- Information Committee
The House of Commons and the House of Lords have established a number of Joint Committees. Some Joint Committees are
established to consider specific bills or topics of legislation; these usually meet for a limited period of time. However, two
committees, the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills and
the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, are more
general and permanent in nature.
Other committees include Advisory Committees and temporarily appointed Special Standing Committees.
Legislative Functions
Conventions
There is a convention known as the Salisbury Convention
according to which the House of Lords will not oppose any government
legislation promised by its election manifesto. And in the case of legislation not covered by this convention, the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 apply. They limit the power of the House of Lords to delaying a bill for up to one year, after which it may
receive Royal Assent, if the Commons passes it again, without the Lords'
consent. In the case of money bills (the main purpose of which relates to taxation or expenditure), the agreement of the House of
Lords is not required at all, though in practice it is usually given.
Restrictions
There are however increasing restrictions on the power of the House of Commons. Under the terms of the European Communities Act 1972 (UK),
European Community law overrides any incompatible UK
legislation. Although the House of Commons could in theory amend or
repeal the European Communities Act, in practice it would be inconceivable for it to do so. Parliamentary legislation that
violates UK law can be challenged through both the UK national courts, and the European Court of Justice.
Another restriction is the European Convention on Human Rights. Since the 1940s the European Court of
Human Rights has had the power to rule UK legislation to be in violation of the rights guaranteed by the Convention. However,
although in all but one case (involving detention of terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland) Parliament stood by the decision of
the Court, there was no legal requirement to do so under domestic UK law. The entry into force of the Human Rights Act 1998 dramatically changed this, by incorporating
the Convention into British law. British courts now have the power to enforce the Convention rights, including the obligation to
interpret parliamentary legislation whenever possible so that it is compatible with those rights. However, in the event of a
court being unable to harmonise the legislation with the Convention rights, the court does not have the power to strike it down;
all it can do is issue a declaration of incompatibility, stating the legislation to be incompatible. But once this declaration
has been issued, there exist under the Act expedited parliamentary procedures to pass legislation to remove the
incompatibility.
Royal Approval
The monarch must assent to any legislation for it to enter into law, although it has been convention since the time of
William and Mary that the monarch will assent to all legislation
passed by Parliament. Queen Anne was the last monarch to refuse
Royal Assent to a bill; she refused her approval to a bill relating to the
Scottish militia in 1707.
Devolution
In addition to European Union membership and the European Convention on Human Rights, devolution has also reduced the apparent
power of the House of Commons compared to the past. Many areas of legislation formerly dealt with at Westminster are now dealt
with by devolved institutions; this applies especially to Scotland, where the
process of devolution has gone the farthest. Although Westminster could in theory legislate in these devolved areas, there is a
constitutional convention that Westminster shall not do so in normal circumstances. However it is debatable whether any real
power has been lost since the House of Commons can suspend or wind up any of the devolved assemblies at any time, and has indeed
already done so at least once in the case of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Since the abolition of the Northern Ireland
Parliament in the 1970s, relatively weak local councils were the only other level of government in the UK. This changed with
the formation of the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly, under the Scotland Act 1998, the Government of Wales Act 1998, and the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
History
The two distinct houses of parliament emerged in the 14th century. One was composed of shire and borough representatives, this
became known as the House of Commons. The other was composed of religious leaders (Lords Spiritual) and magnates (Lords
Temporal), this became known as the House of Lords.
The Parliament Act 1911
After the election of 1906 the Liberal Party had
a large majority in the House of Commons. Due to the naval race with Germany and new social programmes, the Liberal "peoples budget" of 1909 proposed tax increases and new taxes targeting wealthy landowners. These measures were unpopular in the
conservative (and legislatively equal) House of Lords, where the budget was refused passage.
The Liberals brought a complaint to the King, Edward VII who said he would intervene if they proved to have a mandate. The House of
Commons called an election in 1910 and the Liberals were successfully reelected, though not
by as large a margin as the previous election. Threatened with the appointment of 500 new peers if they refused, the Lords passed
the Parliament Act. Under it, the House of Lords could only delay a
proposal for up to two years, after which the Commons would automatically prevail. On August 10, 1911, this came into effect, removing the equal status of the
House of Lords and its effective power of veto.
The Parliament Act 1949
The act reduced the delaying power of the 1911 Act in respect of Public Bills other than Money Bills to two sessions and one
year respectively, the exception being bills to extend the life of Parliament to beyond five years, in which case the Lords would
have full power to defeat the bill.
See also
External links and references
Official
Information
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