House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower chamber of Parliament. It consists of 659 elected members of Parliament, each of whom represents a constituency. Its functions are to debate, legislate and to scrutinize the activities of government. Constituencies are kept under continuous review by the Parlaimentary Boundary Commissions 1944. The House of Commons is presided ove by the Speaker. Proceedings in the House of Commons began to be televised from November 1989. After the 1997 election, the Commons included a record 120 women members, including 101 female Labour MP's. The members of the House of Commons are directly elected by universal adult suffrage. The maximum period between general elections is five years, but the prime minister may advise a dissolution at any time. In order to remain in office the prime minister and his or her government must retain the confidence of a majority of the members of the House of Commons, whereas it does not need the confidence of a majority of the House of Lords.

Officers

The principal officers of the House of Commons are the Speaker, the Chairman of Ways and Means, the Clerk to the House of Commons and the Serjeant at Arms. The leader of the House of Commons, who usually holds the office of Lord President of the Privy Council, is in charge of the government's business in the House of COmmons. He or she is assisted by the government chief whip, who holds the office of parliamentary secretary to the Treasury, and about a dozen junior whips.

Government and Opposition

The UK Parliament operates on the adversarial principle in which the government of the day presents its proposals to and defends its policies in Parliament and these are in turn criticized by the Opposition. The members of the government and its supporters occupy the benches to the right of the Speaker and the Opposition and its supporters the benches to his or her left. MPs holding ministerial office and members of the shadow cabinet are commonly known as Frontbenchers, since they occupy the benches nearest to the Speaker, all other MPs are known as Backbenchers or private members.

Parliamentary Sessions

The House of Commons meets for approx 160 days a year. The parliamentary session normally begins in October or November. On Mondays to Thursdays the House meets from 2.30 to 10.30pm. On Fridays, most of which are devoted to private members' business, the sitting is from 11am to 4.30pm. It is possible for the House to extend any sitting and late-night sittings add the equivalent of more than 30 days to the session. Questions to the Prime Minister may be put for 30 minutes on Wednesday.

Every matter is determined upon a question put from the chair, and resolved in the affirmative or negative. If, having collected the voices on either side, the Speaker's opinion as to which side has the majority is challenged, he or she puts the question again two minutes later. If challenged a seconf time, he or she directs the Ayes into the lobby on the right and the Noes into that on the left. Members' names are recorded in the lobby by the clerks, and they are counted by the tellers as they leave the lobby. The teller announces the result, which the Speaker then declares to the House.

Legislation

Bills may be public or ptivate, the latter being required primarily for local authorities wanting additional powers. Private bills should not be confused with private members' bills, which are so named simply because they are not introduced by the government, but by a private member. Public bills are considered and debated in stages as follows :-

1. First Reading. This is simply the introduction of the bill when it is normally carried without discussion.

2. Second Reading. The main principles of the bill are fully debated and difficulties of detail are noted.

3. Committe Stage. The bill is discussed in detail either by a standing or select committee, or by a committee of the whole house.

4. Report Stage. The committee reports to the House and any changes in it are accepted or rejected.

5. Third Reading. The concluding general debate at which only small verbal changes are normally agreed. The bill is then sent to the House of Lords where legislative procedure is repeated.

Where the bill originates in the upper House the procedure is similar but reversed. Although private members normally introduce more bills than the government, government legislation is far more likely to be passed. In a normal session approx 60 to 80 public bills are passed, of which 15 to 20 are private members' or private peers' bills.

Houses of Parliament

Also called Westminster Palace, in the London Borough of Westminster, the seat of the legislative body of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A royal palace said to have existed at Westminster under Canute originally occupied the site of the present Houses of Parliament. The building however, spoken of by William Fitzstephen as an 'incomparable structure' was built by Edward the Confessor and enlarged by William I the Conquerer. In 1512 the palace suffered greatly from fire and thereafter ceased to be used as a royal residence. St. Stephen's Chapel, traditionally founded by King Stephen, was used from 1547 for the meetings of the House of Commons, held previously in the chapter house of Westminster Abbey, the Lords used another aprtment of the palace. A fire in 1834 destroyed the whole palace exept the historic Westminster Hall and St. Stephen's Chapel.

Sir Charles Barry, assisted by A.W.N. Pugin, designed the present buildings in the Gothic Revival style. Construction was begun in 1840 and finished in 1867. The Commons Chamber was burned out in an air raid during World War II but was restored and reopened in 1950. The House of Lords is an ornate chamber 97 feet in length, that of the Commons is 70 foot long. The southwestern Victoria Tower is 336 foot high. The Clock Tower is 329 foot in height and contains the clock famous for its 13 ton bell, Big Ben, upon which the hours are struck. The bell is named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the first commissioner of works.

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper chamber of Parliament. In 1998 there were 1,134 members, including the two archbishops and 24 bishops, 631 hereditary peers and 477 life peers, of whom 26 are 'Law Lords'. In total there were 86 women peers. The Labour government elected in May 1997 introduced legislation in 1999 to end the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the chamber. This will be the first stage in its democratization. The legislative powers of the Lords will not be changed.

Its members are unelected and in early 1999 comprise the temporal peers, all hereditary peers of England created to 1707, all hereditary peers of Great Britain created in 1707-1800, and all hereditary peers of the UK from 1801 onwards, all hereditary Scottish peers (under the peerage act 1963), all peeresses in their own right, all life peers, and the spiritual peers, the two archbishops and 24 of the bishops. Since the Parliament Act 1911 the powers of the Lords have been restricted in that they may delay a bill passed by the Commons but not reject it. The Lords are presided over by the Lord CHancellor.

Membership

By the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 the Crown is enabled to create life peers to serve as lords of appeal in ordinary. By the Life Peerages Act 1958 the Crown may confer peerages on both men and women. The Peerage Act 1963 enabled hereditary peers to disclaim their peerages for life and a number of peerages have since been disclaimed.

The Life Peerages Act enabled those who objected to the hereditary principle to accept membership of the House of Lords. In particular it enabled many Labour supporters to accept peerages. The Act also facilitated the membership of many individuals prominent in walks of life outside politics. Thus, although the House of Lords has traditionally been regarded as a bastion of Conservatism, the Conservative Party has not had an absolute majority in the Upper House for some time.

In practice a large proportion of the 1,300 potential members, especially among the hereditary peers, do not attend the House regularly, the average attendance being 380. Members of the House of Lords do not receive a salary, but have been entitled to daily expenses since 1957.

Officers

The principle officers of the House of Lords are:-

1. The Speaker, the Lord Chancellor. The Speaker of the House of Lords does not have the wide powers of his or her counterpart in the Lower House, questions of order are determined by the House, and in debate the House and not the Speaker is addressed. The Lord Chancellor, as one of the principal members of the goverment takes a leading oart in the deliberations of the House.

2. The chairman of Committee, who holds office during the lifetime of a session. He or she takes the chair when the House goes into committee, and superintends all committees and matters appertaining to private bills. In absence of the Lord Chancellor he or she acts as Speaker.

3. The clerk of the Parliaments, appointed by letters patent, who keeps the journals of the House, makes minutes of the proceedings, acts as registrar of the House sitting in its judicial capacity, has charge of all records and documents, and signifies the royal assent to bills that have passed both houses.

4. Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, who is appointed by letters patent. He or she assists at the introduction of peers, summons the attendance of the Commons when neccesary, and executes warrants of commitment.

5. The Yoeman Usher of the Black Rod, who is Black Rod's deputy.

Functions and Powers

The functions of the House of Lords are summarized by the report of the Bryce Conference of 1917-18 are:-

1. The examination and revision of bills from the House of Commons, especially those which have been subject to limited debate.

2. The initiation of non-controversial bills.

3. The full and free discussion of large and important questions, especially, but not exclusively, those which the lower House cannot find time to debate.

4. The delaying of legislation in order to allow public opinion to be heard.

History

The House of Lords was originally the more important of the two Houses of Parliament. In the latter half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th there were increasing clashes between Lords and Commons, culminating in the rejection by the upper House of Lloyds George's People's Budget in 1909. This resulted in a fierce constitutional struggle and in the passing of the Parliament Act 1911. The preamble of the latter stated that it was the government's intention to reform the composition of the House of Lords, but this was never done.

The Act of 1911 did drastically curb the powers of the Upper House, however, by laying down that any bill rejected or amended by the Lords, but which was passed by the Commons in threee successive sessions over not less than two calendar years, should receive the royal assent, and by limiting the Lord's power to delay money bills to one month. In 1947, the Labour government introduced a Parliament Bill which became the Parliament Act 1949. This effectively reduced the Lord's veto from two years to nine months. Further attempts at reform during the 1950's and 1960's were unsuccessful.