Parliamentary business

The basic procedure by which the Commons conducts it business is by debate on a particular proposal, followed by a resolution which either accepts or rejects the proposal. Sometimes this resolution just expresses a viewpoint, but most often it is a matter of framing a new law of approving (or not approving) the government’s plan to raise taxes or spend money in certain ways. Occasionally, there is no need to take a vote, but there usually is, and at such times there is a ‘division’. That is, MPs have to vote for or against a particular proposal. They do this by walking through one of two corridors at the side of the House – one side for the ‘Ayes’ (those who agree with the proposal) and the other for ‘Noes’ (those who disagree). Most divisions take place along party lines. MPs nearly always vote the way that their party tells them to. The people whose job is to make sure that MPs do this are called the Whips. By tradition, if the government loses a vote in Parliament on a very important matter, it has to resign. Sometimes, the major parties allow a ‘free vote’, when MPs vote according to their own beliefs and not according to party policy.

How a bill becomes a law

Before a proposal for a new law starts its progress through Parliament, there will have been much discussion. If it is a government proposal, it will probably have been published, explaining the ideas behind the proposal. After this, lawyers draft the proposal into a bill. Most bills begin in the Hose of Commons, where they go through a number of stages:

First Reading

This is a formal announcement only, with no debate.

Second Reading

The House debates the general principles of the bill and, in most cases, takes a vote.

Committee Stage

A Committee of MPs examines the details of the bill and votes on amendments (changes) to parts of it.

Report Stage

The House considers the amendments.

Third Reading

The amended bill is debated as a whole.

The bill is sent to the House of Lords, where it goes through the same stages. (If the Lords make new amendments, these will be considered by the Commons.)

After both Houses have reached agreement, the bill received the royal assent and thus becomes an Act of Parliament which can be applied as part of the law.

The house of lords

The House of Lords has no real power and only limited influence. Although the Lords can delay a bill, they cannot stop it becoming law in the end, even if they continue to refuse it. Its role, therefore, is a consultative one. In the Lords, bills can be discussed in more detail than the busy Commons has time for – and in this way irregularities an inconsistencies in these proposals can be avoided before they become law. In addition, the Lords act as a forum for discussion, and can sometimes bring to attention matters that the Commons has been ignoring.

But who are the members of the House of Lords and how do they get there? Its name suggests that its members are aristocrats. In fact, only a very small proportion of them are there by hereditary right. Until 1958, all of the Lords were indeed aristocrats. Then the first step was taken. A law was passed which made it possible to award ‘life peerages’ through the honours system. These gave people entitlement to sit in the Lords but not the children of these people. During the second half of the twentieth century, the life peerage system established itself as a means of finding a place in public life for distinguished older politicians who no longer wished to be as busy as an MP in the Commons but still wished to voice their opinions in a public forum. Four of the last six Prime Ministers, as well as hundreds of former ministers and other respected politicians, have accepted the offer of a life peerage. Political parties are, in fact, especially keen to send their older members who once belonged to the leadership of the party to the House of Lords. It is a way of rewarding them with prestige but removing them from the Commons, where their status and reputation might otherwise create trouble for the present party leader and party unity. Informally, this practice has become known as ‘being kicked upstairs’.

It is widely believed that the value of the lords lies in the fact that its members do not depend on party politics for their positions. Because they are there for life, they do not have to worry about losing their positions. This means they can take decisions independently, purely on the merit of a case.

The Lords conduct their business in a far more orderly fashion than the Commons. The House is presided over by the Lord Chancellor, the senior law officer of the state. The Lord Chancellor is not impartial, but a government officer. He or she is responsible for the administration of justice and is also an automatic member of the Cabinet.