Functions of Parliament

House of Commons

Passing legislation

Parliament is the UK legislature, the supreme law-making body. Apart from passing new laws, it can (and frequently does) revise its previous decisions, under the convention that no parliament can bind its own successors. There is an expectation that legislation should be discussed fully before it is put to a vote.

Scrutiny of the executive

Under the principle of accountability, ministers are responsible to parliament for their decisions. Governments can be dismissed if they lose the confidence of a
majority of MPs.

Representation

As an elected body, the House of Commons is expected to reflect public opinion to a considerable extent, and to respond to widely held grievances. Even if the government is supported by a clear majority of MPs, it is expected that minority viewpoints should at least be allowed a hearing.

Recruitment of ministers

By convention, all ministers must be members either of the Commons or of the Lords. In other words, unlike in countries with a constitutional separation of powers (like the USA), members of the UK executive must also be part of the legislature.

Debate

Apart from discussing legislation, parliament is regarded as the proper place to debate issues of national concern even if they cannot be affected by a change in the law. Thus in September 2002 parliament was recalled to discuss the possibility of war with Iraq. Earlier in the same year MPs returned from their holidays to pay
tributes to the late queen mother.

House of Lords

Executive Scrutiny

Although most cabinet ministers are members of the Commons, some junior ministers are picked from the Lords. They are subjected to regular question and answer sessions, which actually tend to be more informative than the knockabout performances in the Commons.

Debates

Although the crucial votes take place in the Commons, legislation is still debated in the Lords. Indeed, some bills are introduced there first, to relieve pressure on the government’s timetable in the Commons. Although partisan point scoring is frowned upon in the genteel upper chamber, it is still possible for experienced ex-ministers to make telling speeches. The Lords also provides scope for independent-minded peers to raise issues for debate, thus winning publicity for causes that might otherwise be ignored.

Revision of legislation

Party discipline in the Lords is relatively weak, so peers can be swayed by the quality of a debate. Although the power of the Lords has been restricted, it is well placed to make ministers ‘think again’, if only over the subsidiary clauses of major bills, or legislation that is not a high political priority. Since the House can be reformed at the whim of the Commons, the peers try not to cause provocation by voting down legislation on a regular basis. As a result, the Lords can actually benefit from their weak constitutional position. Ministers can be fairly sure that peers must feel very strongly if they take their opposition to the risky length of opposing the will of the Commons.

Recruitment of ministers

The last peer to serve as prime minister was the Conservative Marquess of Salisbury, who left office in 1902 [Robert Gascoyne-Cecil]. In 1940 Winston Churchill became prime minister rather than Lord Halifax mainly because his rival was unaccountable to the Commons. But as discussed, each government department has a junior spokesperson in the Lords; in addition, the Lord Chancellor has always been a members of the House. Since the Life Peerages Act, the Lords represents a remarkable pool of talent—of retired ministers who can draw on their experience, relatively young MPs whose career has been cut short by electoral defeat, or people from other professions who have been elevated to the Lords because of their specialist knowledge.