Course Title:

Public Policy And Role Of Legislator

Submitted To:
Mam Zainab Murtaza
Submitted By:
Mujahid Hassan, Hassaan Kamran,
Haseeb Shabir, Moaz Ali, Faheem Ullah, Tayyab Gill,
Haseeb Ahsan
Assignment Title:
Parliamentary system of UK
Semester:
8th(PPS Morning)

Government College University Faisalabad

(GCUF)
The United Kingdom operates under a parliamentary system of government. The system is
characterized by a constitutional monarchy, where the monarch serves as the head of state, and a
parliamentary democracy, where the government is formed by elected representatives. Here are
the key features of the parliamentary system in the UK:

Constitutional Monarchy: The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, which

means the monarch's role is primarily ceremonial and symbolic. The current monarch is Queen
Elizabeth II. The monarch's powers are limited, and the exercise of authority is typically carried
out by elected officials.

Bicameral Parliament: The UK Parliament consists of two houses: the House of Commons
and the House of Lords.

a. House of Commons: The House of Commons is the lower house and is composed of
Members of Parliament (MPs) who are elected by the public through general elections. The
House of Commons is responsible for making laws, scrutinizing the government, and
representing the interests of the constituents. The House of Commons[c] is the lower house of
the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the
Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body
consisting of 650 members known as members of Parliament (MPs). MPs are elected to
represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system and hold their seats until Parliament is
dissolved.

The House of Commons of England started to evolve in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1707 it
became the House of Commons of Great Britain after the political union with Scotland, and from
1800 it also became the House of Commons for Ireland after the political union of Great Britain
and Ireland. In 1922, the body became the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland after the independence of the Irish Free State. Under the Parliament
Acts 1911 and 1949, the Lords' power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The
government is solely responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in
office only as long as they retain the confidence of a majority of the Commons.

b. House of Lords : The House of Lords is the upper house of Parliament. It is not elected but
comprises appointed members, including life peers, hereditary peers, and bishops. The House of
Lords reviews legislation proposed by the House of Commons, provides expertise, and acts as a
revising chamber. The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of
the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official
function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London,
England.
The House of Lords holds the government to account by scrutinising bills, alongside the House
of Commons. Peers regularly review and amend bills before they reach Royal Assent, seeking
agreement with the House of Commons on the final text (also known as 'ping pong'). While it is
unable to prevent bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it can delay bills
and force the Commons to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the House of Lords, being
independent of the electoral process, acts as a check on the House of Commons. While members
of the Lords may also take on roles as government ministers, high-ranking officials such as
cabinet ministers are usually drawn from the Commons. The House of Lords does not control the
term of the prime minister or of the government. Only the lower house may force the prime
minister to resign or call elections.

While the House of Commons has a defined number of members, the number of members in the
House of Lords is not fixed. Currently, it has 778 sitting members. The House of Lords is the
only upper house of any bicameral parliament in the world to be larger than its lower house, and
is the second-largest legislative chamber in the world behind the Chinese National People's
Congress.

The King's Speech is delivered in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament. In
addition to its role as the upper house, until the establishment of the Supreme Court in 2009, the
House of Lords, through the Law Lords, acted as the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom
judicial system.[17] The House of Lords also has a Church of England role, in that Church
Measures must be tabled within the House by the Lords Spiritual.

Prime Minister: The head of government in the UK is the Prime Minister. The Prime
Minister is the leader of the political party or coalition that commands a majority in the House of
Commons. The Prime Minister is appointed by the monarch but must have the confidence of the
House of Commons to govern effectively.

Cabinet: The Prime Minister forms a Cabinet, which consists of senior ministers selected from
the governing party. Cabinet ministers are responsible for specific policy areas and collectively
form the executive branch of the government.

Legislative Process: A core task of the UK parliament is passing legislation, which begin
life as bills. There are three types of bills:

 Public bills apply to everyone and either the government or backbench MPs propose
them. Most bills are public.
 Private bills change the law for a limited set of interests such as a single organisation or
an individual.
 Hybrid bills combine aspects of public and private bills and are used in very specific
circumstances when a bill both has a broad public purpose and will affect people at a
local level.
Each type is subject to different procedures. A public bill must undergo five steps in each House
of Parliament – first reading, second reading, committee stage, report stage and third reading –
before the two Houses resolve any differences between them and the bill receives royal assent to
become an act, and law. Some bills will also undergo an optional pre-legislative scrutiny stage
before any of these and others will undergo scrutiny after they become law.

Bills can start their passage through the UK parliament in either House. This explainer outlines
first the passage of bills in the Commons and then the differences in the Lords.

First reading: This is the first official stage of a bill. The short title of the bill is read out and
then an order for the bill to be published is made. This is when the full text of the bill is made
public, usually accompanied by explanatory notes. It is a purely procedural event. There is no
vote and the bill cannot be discussed or amended in any way.

Second reading: This is when a bill is first debated. For a government bill, a minister opens the
debate and then shadow ministers and backbench MPs have the opportunity to make their points
about the proposed legislation. The details of the bill cannot be changed at this stage but an MP
can table a ‘reasoned amendment’ opposing the bill. If the Speaker selects the reasoned
amendment for a decision, it will be voted on before the vote on second reading If the bill is
defeated at second reading, it cannot be re-introduced during the same parliamentary session.
Defeat at second reading is a rare occurrence for government bills, with the last one happening in
1986. After the vote on second reading, the House approves a programme motion setting out the
timetable for the remaining stages.

Committee stage: This is generally the longest stage of a bill’s passage and where the most
thorough scrutiny takes place. Most bills are referred to a public bill committee. The membership
reflects the party composition of the House, and a majority government therefore rarely loses a
vote in committee. Constitutional bills, bills of major importance and highly controversial bills
are taken in a committee of the whole House, meaning all MPs can contribute.

MPs conduct clause-by-clause scrutiny and public bill committees can also take oral evidence
from key stakeholders. Each clause must be agreed to, amended or removed and new clauses
may be proposed and agreed to. The government tables almost all of the amendments made. If it
agrees with the idea behind an opposition or backbench amendment, it will normally try to
introduce an amendment on the subject at report stage.

Third reading: This is the final opportunity to debate a bill – usually immediately after the report
stage ends, often on the same day, and usually lasting up to an hour. The debate often involves
MPs and ministers making speeches congratulating those who have worked to get the bill to this
stage. MPs then vote on whether to approve the third reading of the bill. The last defeat of a
government bill at this stage was in 1977.
Consideration of amendments: After the Lords have considered a bill, it will be sent back to
the Commons, or vice versa. If the second House does not amend the bill then it goes for royal
assent. If it has been amended then the amendments return to the first House, which can reject
the amendments, agree to them or propose new ones. The bill then returns to the second House
for it to consider any changes the first House has made. This process, known as ‘ping pong’,
continues until both Houses are in agreement. If a deadlock is reached, then the bill falls.

Royal assent: This is the final stage of a bill. Once both Houses agree on it, or just the
Commons if the Parliament Act has been used, it then goes to the monarch, who will then
officially agree to make the bill an act of parliament.

Party System: Since the 1920s the two main political parties in the UK, in terms of the
number of seats in the House of Commons, are the Conservative and Unionist Party and the
Labour Party. The Scottish National Party has the second largest party membership, but a smaller
number of MPs as it only fields candidates for constituencies in Scotland.

The modern day Conservative Party was founded in 1834 and is an outgrowth of the Tory
movement or party, which began in 1678. Today it is still colloquially referred to as the Tory
Party and members/supporters are referred to as Tories. The Liberal Democrats (or "Lib Dems")
were founded in 1988 by an amalgamation of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party
(SDP), a right-wing Labour breakaway movement formed in 1981. The Liberals and SDP had
contested elections together as the SDP–Liberal Alliance for seven years previously. The modern
Liberal Party had been founded in 1859 as an outgrowth of the Whig movement or party (which
began at the same time as the Tory Party and was its historical rival) as well as the Radical and
Peelite tendencies.

The Liberal Party was one of the two dominant parties (along with the Conservatives) from its
founding until the 1920s, when it rapidly declined in popularity, and was supplanted on the left
by the Labour Party, which was founded in 1900 and formed its first minority government in
1924. Since that time, the Labour and Conservative parties have been dominant, with the
Liberals (later Liberal Democrats) being the third-largest party until 2015, when they lost 49 of
their 57 seats, they now hold 11 seats. They lost 10 seats in the 2019 general election. Currently
the Scottish National Party is the third largest party and have been since the 2015 General
Election when they gained 56 seats. Founded in 1934, the SNP advocates Scottish independence
and has had continuous representation in Parliament since 1967. The SNP currently leads a
minority government in the Scottish Parliament, and has 48 MPs in the House of Commons after
the 2019 general election.

Judicial Independence: The judiciaries of the United Kingdom are the separate judiciaries
of the three legal systems in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The judges of
the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission,
Employment Tribunals, Employment Appeal Tribunal and the UK tribunals system do have a
United Kingdom–wide jurisdiction but judgments only apply directly to the jurisdiction from
which a case originates as the same case points and principles do not inevitably apply in the
other jurisdictions. In employment law, employment tribunals and the Employment Appeal
Tribunal have jurisdiction in the whole of Great Britain (i.e., not in Northern Ireland).

Justices of the Supreme Court: The judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom are
known as Justices of the Supreme Court, and they are also Privy Counsellors. Justices of the
Supreme Court are granted the courtesy title Lord or Lady for life.

The Supreme Court is a relatively new Court being established in October 2009 following the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005. Formerly, the Highest Court of Appeal in the United Kingdom
was the House of Lords Appellate Committee made up of Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, also
known as Law Lords, which with other Lord Justices now form the Supreme Court. It also took
over devolution cases from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Such Law Lords were
allowed to sit in the House of Lords and were members for life.

The Supreme Court serves as the highest court of appeal for all cases in England and Wales and
in Northern Ireland, but only for civil cases in Scotland. The High Court of Justiciary remains the
court of last resort in Scotland for criminal cases. The Supreme Court is headed by the President
and Deputy President of the Supreme Court and is composed of a further ten Justices of the
Supreme Court. The Justices do not wear any gowns or wigs in court, but on ceremonial
occasions they wear black damask gowns with gold lace without a wig.

Tribunal Judiciary: The UK tribunal system is part of the national system of administrative
justice with tribunals classed as non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). Though it has grown
up on an ad hoc basis since the beginning of the twentieth century, from 2007 reforms were put
in place to build a unified system with recognised judicial authority, routes of appeal and
regulatory supervision, and recognised legally qualified members of tribunals as members of the
judiciary who are guaranteed continued judicial independence. The UK tribunal system is headed
by the Senior President of Tribunals.