Get to grips with the UK’s political system in our six minute politics series! For A Level Politics students, each of these blog posts is a six-minute summary of some of the main topics you will need for your exams. For university-level scholars or independent researchers, we’ve included clickable links to useful literature, primary sources and canonical scholarship you’ll need to know.
In this post, discover the UK Parliament!
John Smith was the first Speaker of the British House of Commons
In our post about the UK Constitution, we saw that one of A. V. Dicey’s ‘two pillars of the English constitution' is parliamentary sovereignty. We have a bicameral Parliament, meaning that Parliament is divided into two chambers: the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
An Asymmetrical Relationship
The House of Commons receives its legitimacy from having a democratic mandate: authority granted by the electorate to act as its representative. However, the House of Lords is unelected, so there is an asymmetrical distribution of the relative powers of the two houses.
The Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 mean that the Lords are now only able to delay legislation, rather than block it indefinitely, and the Salisbury Convention means that the House of Lords does not block legislation that fulfils the manifesto of an elected government. The House of Commons has the right to legislate on financial matters.
However, when there is a large majority in the House of Commons, the Lords can be seen as the real opposition in Parliament.
Composition of the Houses
There are 650 Members of Parliament (MPs), who represent the constituencies of the UK. Most PMs are members of a political party. The political party with the most MPs in the House of Commons forms the Government.
Backbenchers are MPs who do not hold ministerial or shadow ministerial office, whereas frontbenchers are government ministers or opposition shadow spokespeople.
The Leader of the House of Commons communicates the government business schedule and liaises with the chief whip (whips are in charge of party discipline), whereas the Leader of the Opposition is the leader of the second largest party. This is known as Her Majesty's Official Opposition and its role is to scrutinise the work of government.
The Speaker is an MP who has been elected by other MPs and must remain politically impartial. He or she chairs debates in the Commons chamber and is the highest authority of the House of Commons.
The House of Lords is made up of around 700 unelected Peers; these can be hereditary or Life Peers. There are 26 Church of England Bishops, known as the Lords spiritual.
There are ongoing debates about reforming the House of Lords. Some people think that we should keep the House of Lords as it is. The fact that the House of Lords is unelected means that peers can scrutinise the government on the basis of good policy; not because they want to get re-elected. Others prefer transitioning to a system of appointments, which could take into account demographic representation and expertise.
Yet others argue that we should have a wholly elected second chamber. This would give the House of Lords a democratic mandate, but it may change the balance of power between the two houses from an asymmetrical relationship to a more symmetrical one. However, this may result in decisions being made to win votes, rather than what is for the best. It could also lead to electoral fatigue and voter apathy.
Queen Anne addressing the House of Lords
Finally, an elected second chamber would mean that peers could be replaced when there is an election, but this undermines the idea that the House of Lords is a check on the Commons through its built up expertise.
Main Roles of Parliament: Representation
Parliament has the role of representation, which means making sure that the views and interests of the British public are reflected in Parliament. MPs in the House of Commons are representatives of their constituency, their party and any special interests or groups they may feel strongly about.
Geographic Representation: there are 650 roughly equally sized constituencies (in terms of population), whose boundaries are drawn up independently by the Boundary Commission. MPs hold local surgeries to listen to constituents’ concerns and can raise these matters to Parliament or local government in a process known as the redress of grievances.
Political Representation: there is a wide range of parties in the Commons. However, the first-past-the-post electoral system favours the largest parties and regionally concentrated parties such as the SNP. Smaller parties such as Reform and the Greens are underrepresented.
Demographic Representation: This takes into account how Parliament’s composition reflects the UK’s ethnic, gender and other identity categories. For example, a record 40% of MPs were women in 2024.
Representation of Interests: MPs have a wide range of interests and special policy areas they represent. All-party groups in Parliament might represent education, Scottish whisky, football and other issues. However, this diversity of interests is not reflected in the backgrounds of MPs. The Sutton Trust (2019) points out that 29% of MPs in 2019 were privately educated, compared with 7% of the population as a whole.
Main Roles of Parliament: Scrutiny
One of Parliament’s main roles scrutiny of the executive; holding the government to account is particularly the role of His Majesty's Official Opposition.
Houses of Parliament
Scrutiny occurs through:
Parliamentary questions: House of Commons questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the government department concerned. House of Lords questions are to the Government as a whole, not to particular government departments.
Select committees: Select Committees check and report on areas like the work of government departments to economic affairs. House of Commons Select Committees (at least 11 members with special advisors) mostly examine the work of government departments. Committees in the House of Lords concentrate on specialist areas.
Public Bill Committees are committee set up by the House of Commons to examine the details of a particular Bill.
Parliamentary privilege grants certain legal immunities for Members of both Houses to allow them to perform their duties without interference from outside of the House. This includes freedom of speech, exemption from slander laws/contempt of court and the right of both Houses to regulate their own affairs.
Parliamentary debates are held over key issues. Emergency debates can be granted at the speaker’s discretion and can lead to government inquiries.
The Backbench Business Committee was set up in 2010 and gives MPs the opportunity to shape Commons business. It decides the topics for debate in the Commons and Westminster Hall one day a week. Petitions and E-Petitions are debated on Mondays.
Main Roles of Parliament: Legislation
Legislation refers to bills that are put before Parliament and become law once they are passed. A public bill applies to everyone once it becomes law; rarely, there can be private bills, which only apply to specific groups (e.g. the Middle Level Act 2018, which regulated navigation in parts of East Anglia). Bills can start in either the House of Lords or the House of Commons.
Click the link to read the UK Parliament’s description of how bills become law.
Before Bills are produced, governments sometimes produce Green Papers, consultation or discussion documents produced by the Government that set out issues and options for legislation.
White papers are policy documents setting out proposals for future legislation. Recently, pre-legislative scrutiny by select or joint committees before a Bill is formally presented to Parliament has increased.
Chamber of the House of Commons
Secondary legislation is law created by ministers (or other bodies) under powers given to them by an Act of Parliament. It is used to fill in the details of Acts (primary legislation) e.g. banning new substances in response to new information by adding them to a list under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971).
Private Members’ bills are introduced by MPs and Lords who are not government ministers. Even though most Private Members’ bills do not become law, they can affect legislation indirectly by highlighting issues. An example of a private members’ bill that was successful is the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022.
In our next post, discover rights and the judiciary in the UK!
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