The UKA Houses of Lords and Commons - Coursework Example

The UK’A Houses of Lords and Commons The United Kingdom House of Lords habitually known as 2nd Chamber or Upper househas existed for over six centuries and were part of the United Kingdom Parliament. Since its emergency, it has received some reforms to improve its functions, and the significant of them is a 1958 live peerage Act and the latest 1999’s House of Lords Act. The latter was objectively ratified to improve representation in the house by removing the hereditary peers from the assembly and, therefore, end the Conservative Party’s dominance (Roselle). This meant that the chamber will remain with no exclusive party to make overall majority as most members become life peers. The exclusion of the vastness of hereditariness has thereafter accorded the chamber a greater sense of confidence, and the conviction is shared by the both public and Members of House of Lords (Russell). It is these latest reforms that form the basis of this paper’s analysis of the composition and roles of the modern House of Lords in democratic Britain together with the evaluation of whether the chamber is doing good job. The 1999 reform led to a more inclusive representation and the composition of the Lord’s into party subdivisions (UK Parliament). All these parties are classified as life peers; hereditary peers, or lords spiritual and overall currently add up to 787 members. In this paper, I will confer the functions of the House of Lords that include making laws, in –depth public policy contemplation and holding the UK government accountable. Composition of the House of Lords As the upper house of the UK parliament, the House of Lords is composed of a group of non-elective elites from different sectors whose work include but not limited to complementing house of Common’s work and scrutiny of UK government policies. The composition of the upper house is categorized into five major groups using the consideration party of the member, gender, policy interest, selected committee, and the joint committee membership. Collectively as at 19th November of 2014, there are 787 members excluding some members who are on either leave, suspended or disqualified (UK Parliament). The party or group as a classification of the House of Lords composition is divided into in about seven subgroups. The subgroups currently include conservative party with a membership of 231, the crossbenchers with 175 members, the Labour party with 216 members, Liberal democrats with 105 members, Non-affiliated with 20 members, Bishops with 5 members and other representatives with 14 members. Despite, few hereditary members remaining in the current chamber, as per the 1999 Act, 75 of the 92 formal hereditary placements were allocated in proportion of hereditary peers. The Conservative party received 42 peers, Labour party-2 peers, crossbenchers- 28 peers and Liberal democrats- 3 peer (UK Parliament). As with gender, the house of lords currently has 192 female and 595 Lords (UK Parliament). It is imperative to remark that despite the hereditary peers number being limited to 92 members, and the lord’s spiritual members to 26, the maximum number of members who are life peers at the House of lord is not limited at any time (McLean, Spirling and Russell). Of the 787 members, some members participate or have interest in policy interests, some of which include defense, education, international affairs, etc. There are also 36 parliamentary select committee, a few of which accommodation steering committee, affordable childcare, communication, constitution committees, etc. Final compositional membership is in Parliamentary Joint committees which include consolidation of bills, human rights, security joint committee, etc. (UK Parliament). Roles of the Lords The Lords in the UK chamber are a class of elite professionals from different fields whose expertise is invoked to compliment the work done by House of Commons (Bochel and Defty). The positions are not elective and so United Kingdom citizens do not elect Lords membership, but rather appointed by House of Lords appointing commission. In the operation of the chamber schedule, approximately 60% of the time is owed to legislation, and the other 40% is utilized on scrutiny policy and government inquiries (UK Parliament). Both select and joint committee operations are carried out of the Lord’s chamber. Legislation of laws As indicated above, legislation is a significant role of the Upper house as members spend almost three-quarters of their time in considering the bills or draft laws. Before the drafts become law, they must be debated and considered by both houses and often the House of Lords do what many refer as revising (UK Parliament). The exercise is obviously tedious, as the members have to verify the each draft, line-by-line before it becomes into law, but often members are up to the task, thanks for their expertise. Most of the enacted laws include the areas of education, healthcare, human rights, security, and so forth. The chamber definitely does a good job. Such is because, currently the upper chamber is made up of individuals from different professional fields, and that contributes to quality debates. Secondly is that the appointment of the Lords is specifically based on experience and personal excellence (UK Parliament). Unlike in an elective position that favours only politically active individuals run for elections, the Lords’ affluence of knowledge of current Lords could be preserved. Profoundly contemplation of public policy Another special role done by the upper house is the contemplation of public policies and more often such functions are carried out of the chamber. This work done more often by different parliamentary select and joint committees which are a group (s) of particular individuals appointed to address specific policy areas (UK Parliament). According to chamber’s website, in 2013-2014 sessions, the house’s select committees came up with 31 reports on several policies some of which include the European union powers, advances in sciences and economic affairs. The meetings are very essential as they are open to the public participation and often involve expertise examination of the concerned subject (UK Parliament). Hold a government Accountable Final work done by the Lords is holding the government accountable for its actions, whereby the schedule is well organized so that government ministers attend and are questioned on a number of undertakings. For instance, in the 2013-2014 sessions, the Lords held the government ministers to account with 7559 verbal and in print questions and about 247 debates on matters varying from childcare, poverty to immigration. During the debates, the public is permitted to attend sessions and visualize the proceedings from the galleries (UK Parliament). Consequently, the upper house is also referred as revising chamber because its principle role is to review government bills as even after they have passed through the lower house. That way the scrutiny by House of Lords would serve as a counterbalance for dictatorial elective chamber (House of Commons). Such is necessarily, because if not revised, the House of Commons might pass the bills without much consideration or biased. As attested by Russell, in the House of Commons, most bills would be delayed for almost a year under the lower chamber (House of Commons), whereas in contrast, in the House of Lords, a financial bill can only last for a month (Russell). Notwithstanding, the immense Lords’ role, the current structure is not flawless either. One of the shortcomings is the fact that, most of the Lords are aged, which even though there is emphasizes on their know-how, it quickly tip-off that they might be unfamiliar with modern-day advances in their professions. This concern should be considered in the future to see that the upper house operation and business keep up with time. The Lords appointing commission ought to target senior expertise, as well as political achievers and high promising apprentice in various fields. That way, safeguarding existent expertise and still add new skills thus ensuring rich, knowledgeable Lords. Part 2 Seminar: House of Commons The House Commons is the oldest house of parliament and his comprised of elected officials and therefore the public participate in putting them in office. Besides its roles being same as those of the upper house, the commons legislated laws to reform the House of Lords. The chamber major debates are based on day-to-day political issues and legislation of related laws (UK Parliament). The house common also has the privilege to host government ministers, such as the Prime minister, the chancellor and other key principals in the political divide especially those of the main political parties (UK Parliament). Available Resources for Effective Scrutiny of Executive by the House of Commons The first resource accorded the house of common is the ultimate authority of a vote of no confidence to check government power. The house of commons is the only chamber of parliament that is allowed to exercise this authority. A significant initiation of this power occurred in 1979, when the Labour parties failure lead to the election of Margret Thatcher (Russell and Sciara). This resource allows the Commons to brazen the government unswervingly and that crafts a reciprocal respect between the government and the House of Commons. This is because they can do away with the government if they prove that it is abusing its power or not using the power effectively. The second resource that makes the House of Commons more effective in scrutinizing the executive is the Prime minister question time Resource. The resource presents a weekly privilege when, members of the lower house (MPs) are allowed to ask the prime minister one notified and one unscripted question (UK Parliament). However, most questions are dominated by the Prime Minister and the official opposition leader who has the discretion to four or five additional question if they if available. The resource also widens to include other ministers questioning and are, therefore, compelled to respond to oral questions from the Commons members. Occasionally, the question time resource may expose the Prime Minister’s or seem to let slip the political temperament or atmosphere. Consequently, the question time responses by the PM are of high profile mainly because of the vast media coverage and the one event in a week makes it convenient for public to follow and therefore make a conclusion regarding the two leaders (UK Parliament). Also with the question time resource, the vast preponderance of the government can only be questioned in the House of Commons. A further resource to keep government actions on toe is the debate resource. The resource enables performance of several checks as several issues for they are debated upon and scrutinizing the government’s policies. It consents to comprehensive questioning of the UK government legislation and initiated policies through committees. Such detailed questioning can sometimes lead to instances where ministers make errors. The eminent example of recent time is when Tony Blair said that Sadam Hussein was attacking with use of mass destruction weapons, and after the United Kingdom troops were sent to end this incident, no such weaponry were found. Such mistakes also serve as a precaution for successive governments. For instance, it is on this premise that the UK’s current Prime Minister- David Cameroon has acted so cautiously about the perceptible chemical weapons use Syria, and the current debate into this issue had an upshot of the executive losing. Having considered this resource, it is undeniable that debates in the House of Commons allows both the commons and the government to come to consensus in the use of its power and asses if government is worthy praise or warrants scrutiny Effective of House of common rebellion Effective rebellion by the House of Common rebellion is commonly prevalent when it comes to party loyalty. Traditionally, the common’s house operates on whip systems basis whereby MPs appointed by the ruling party ensure that all legislators of a certain party cast their votes in favour to their leader’s decisions (Fisk). Such collective decisions hamper member’s independence and are, therefore, liable to vote not considering their objection. However, though very rare, some members may rebel against their party and vote independently and therefore become effective. Another effective rebellion by the House of Commons is prevalent at instances where the rebel against legislation made by House of Lords. They often exercise their rebellion by suspending the Lord’s legislation to a maximum of two years. For instance in 2001, despite the Lord’s voting 317-68 for the ban of fox hunting and subsequent vote in 2004 for a complete ban, the draft bill was postponed by the Commons till 2005 (Russell and Sciara). Does the House of Commons make a difference? Despite the powerful entry of the House of Lords, the House of Commons still hold a significant difference as far as matters concerning representation, government oversight and policy scrutiny. The house of commons has maintained the representation role, whereby the MPs are stand for particular constituents and particular group interests (UK Parliament). Even though there may be independent MPs, majority of MPs do represent their political parties and ideologies, and such is how they vote (the whipping system). The likes of the Prime Minister are part of the House of Commons whose function and role is considerable some of which include power to appoint, reshuffle ministers, create peers, award honours, appoint chairs of national industries and so forth. Clearly, the role of the House of Commons are distinct and paramount and therefore do make a huge difference in the UK. In conclusion, it is evident that the UK bicameral parliaments are distinct not only in composition and qualification, but in terms roles of each chamber as well. Each chamber has its resources that facilitate the executive scrutiny; the commons have vote of confidence, question time, and debates resources whereas the Lords have the expertise and debates as resources to keep the government on toes. The membership structure in the House of Commons is elective whereas that of the House of Lords is appointive of experts in specific areas. Finally, despite the drawbacks that each house is likely to face in the dispensation of their duties, the UK bicameral does a good job, and the magnitude of their role is inexhaustible. Works cited Bochel, H., and A. Defty. A Question Of Expertise: The House Of Lords And Welfare Policy. Parliamentary Affairs 63.1 (2009): 66-84. Print Fisk, Dick. What Do Members Want? Peer Pressure" And Legislative Rebellion In The British House Of Lords. Academia.edu. N.p., 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. McLean, Iain, Arthur Spirling, and Meg Russell. None Of The Above: The UK House Of Commons Votes On Reforming The House Of Lords, February 2003. The Political Quarterly 74.3 (2003): 298-310. Web. Russell, Meg. A Stronger Second Chamber? Assessing The Impact Of House Of Lords Reform In 1999 And The Lessons For Bicameralism. Political Studies 58.5 (2010): 866-885. Web. Russell, Meg, and Maria Sciara. "Why does the Government get defeated in the House of Lords?." Paper to Political Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Reading. 2006. UK Parliament,. What The Lords Does. N.p., 2014. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. UK Parliament,. Members of The House Of Lords. N.p., 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. Read More