Evaluate The View That Parliament Is

No Longer Sovereign In The UK. (30)

Politics Explained Essay Plan
Topic ➡ 4. Relations Between The Branches
Structure ➡ Three paragraphs with for/against and an overall judgement within each
This Essay Plan Is Part Of A Package Of Essay Plans Covering The UK Government Part Of The
Politics A Level Course For AQA, Edexcel and OCR Exam Boards. It Can Be Purchased Here ➡
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Keep In Mind ➡ These are long plans as they’re intended to be revised from to cover the key
content you need to know for the exam. In the exam, you would need to adapt them for the
specific question you are asked and you certainly wouldn’t need to include everything, especially
not all of the examples. The judgements are also subjective and you don’t have to agree with
them!

Introduction
Key Definitions
Parliamentary Sovereignty refers to the fact that the UK Parliament is legally ‘sovereign’ within the UK
constitution.

This means it can make laws on any subject, it is the only law making and amending body in
Britain and no court or higher body, including the Supreme Court, can strike down a law passed
by Parliament.

Paragraph One ➡ Parliament vs The Executive

Against: Arguments That Parliament Remains Sovereign In The UK
The UK Parliament remains the ultimate legal authority in the UK. It can pass laws on any subject and
isn’t subordinate to any other body in law.

Judges can’t strike down laws using the Human Rights Act, just declare them incompatible with it
and advise Parliament to change the offending law, which Parliament can refuse to do.

Evaluate The View That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK. (30) Politics Explained Essay Plan 1
 For example, Home Secretary Suella Braverman introduced the Illegal Migration Bill with a
section 19 note stating that there was a likelihood the provisions of the bill would be
incompatible with the Human Rights Act and international law (The European Convention on
Human Rights), but that the government wanted to proceed with it nonetheless.

Parliamentary Sovereignty can also be seen as having been reasserted recently in a number of ways.

The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union in 2020 significantly increased parliamentary
sovereignty, as Parliament regained the ability to legislate on areas of policy previously controlled
by the EU, whilst the European Court of Justice could no longer strike down laws passed by
Parliament if they broke EU laws/regulations.

In recent decades, it has become a convention that parliament is consulted before voting on
major military actions.

Parliament can therefore be seen as having gained the prerogative power to wage war from
the executive.

This can be seen in 2013, when David Cameron backed down from calling for airstrikes
in Syria after Parliament voted against them. This being said, Theresa May carried out
similar airstrikes in 2017 without consulting Parliament.

Since 2010, there have been a number of weak governments with smaller/no majorities. This has
increased the power of Parliament to scrutinise and effectively challenge the executive.

Theresa May’s minority government was defeated thirty-three times, including three Brexit-
related defeats in one day on 15th January 2019.

Further, since the House of Lords has become more professional following New Labour’s
reforms, it has been readier to challenge government legislation.

For: Arguments That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK

On the other hand, it can be argued that parliamentary sovereignty is really executive sovereignty as
the government can usually dominate parliament. Lord Hailsham called this an ‘elective dictatorship’.

The executive controls most of the parliamentary agenda and is able to use whipping and its large
majority to ensure they very rarely lose votes.

Tony Blair lost just four votes across his ten years as Prime Minister, whilst since the Second
World War, over 99% of divisions (votes) in the House of Commons have been won by the
government.

Judgement
Overall, Parliament clearly retains a lot of legal sovereignty. It is the key law making and amending
body in the UK and has reasserted its sovereignty in recent years, in particular since leaving the EU.

Further, though the executive does exercise a significant amount of this sovereignty, this is due to
its large majority in Parliament and therefore shouldn’t be seen as contradicting parliamentary
sovereignty.

Paragraph Two ➡ Devolved Bodies vs Parliament

For: Arguments That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK

Evaluate The View That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK. (30) Politics Explained Essay Plan 2
 Devolved bodies have significant powers to make laws on a range of policy areas, including over
certain areas of taxation, and therefore have a significant amount of sovereignty.

For example, the Scottish Parliament controls key public services including health and social
policy, key welfare benefits (including disability living allowance) and education. It now also has
significant fiscal powers, controlling income tax rates and bands and the right to 50% of all VAT
raised in Scotland.

As a consequence, it can be argued that Parliament is no longer sovereign over these policy
areas in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Further, the Sewel Convention stipulates that the UK Parliament cannot legislate on policy areas that
are devolved without permission from the relevant devolved assembly.

This was recognised in the Scotland Act 2016 and Wales Act 2017.

Against: Arguments That Parliament Remains Sovereign In The UK

Devolution isn’t a federal settlement with a formal, legal sharing of sovereignty between different
levels of government. Instead, Parliament has granted power to the devolved bodies, which it could
legally take back.

Parliament retains the legal power to abolish the devolved bodies and reverse devolution. Further,
the Sewel Convention is just a convention, which isn’t legally binding and doesn’t formally limit the
power of Parliament. It is only recognised in the Scotland Act 2016 and Wales Act 2017, rather
than being binding.

Counterpoint: This being said, these actions would be politically highly unlikely as it would create
a constitutional crisis and devolved bodies are a deeply ingrained part of British politics.

Two recent actions can be seen as reasserting the sovereignty of Parliament in relation to the
devolved bodies.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the consent of the UK Parliament is necessary to legislate
for a second independence referendum in Scotland, despite the SNP arguing otherwise.

In January 2023, Rishi Sunak used a Section 35 Order to block Scotland’s proposed gender
reform bill, which would’ve introduced self-identification for those who wanted to change gender
and allowed 16 and 17 year olds to do so. This was the first time a UK government has used a
Section 35 Order.

Section 35 of the Scotland Act allows the UK Government to block a bill from a devolved body
in exceptional circumstances if it believes it will have an adverse impact on UK-wide law.

Judgement
Overall, though the UK Parliament retains the legal power to abolish the devolved bodies and break
the Sewel Convention, it is highly unlikely it would do so as it would generate a massive backlash and
the devolved bodies are now a key part of the British political system.

In reality if not in law therefore, Parliament is no longer sovereign over Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland in relation to the policy areas controlled by the relevant bodies.

Paragraph Three ➡ The People vs Parliament

For: Arguments That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK

Evaluate The View That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK. (30) Politics Explained Essay Plan 3
 The people ultimately have popular/political sovereignty, with which they grant Parliament and other
bodies legal sovereignty through elections.

In a democracy, the legal sovereign body derives its authority from the people. When the people
elect a parliament they delegate their political authority to their representatives.

If the people aren’t happy with Parliament, they will remove them through elections, or if
necessary a revolution.

In the past few decades, there have been a number of referendums on key constitutional issues,
including Scottish Independence, Brexit, the electoral system and devolution. As a consequence, a
convention has developed that the people should be consulted in a referendum before a significant
constitutional change is introduced.

It can therefore be argued that the people now have legal sovereignty over key constitutional
changes, as it would be highly politically unlikely that Parliament would defy the clearly expressed
will of the people in a referendum.

Against: Arguments That Parliament Remains Sovereign In The UK

Whilst the people have popular/political sovereignty, this has always been the case and Parliamentary
Sovereignty refers to the legal sovereignty that is traditionally held by Parliament.

Referendums in the UK are only advisory. Parliament remains sovereign after a referendum and could
decide not to implement a referendum result or to call another referendum to try and get a different
result, as the People’s Vote movement tried in relation to Brexit.

This was confirmed in the Article 50 Court Case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the UK
Parliament had to have a vote before Article 50 could be triggered to start the process of the UK’s
withdrawal from the European Union.

Judgement
Overall, the people certainly have popular/political sovereignty, however this doesn’t contradict
Parliamentary Sovereignty which is legal sovereignty.

Parliament is no longer legally sovereign in relation to key constitutional changes, however, as a

convention has developed that the people should be consulted and though referendums are
legally advisory in practice it would be highly unlikely that Parliament would ignore a referendum
result.

Overall Argument
In conclusion, the UK Parliament certainly has the most sovereignty of any body in the UK and can
pass laws and make decisions on almost all subjects.

This being said, Parliament is no longer sovereign in the UK, as the people are sovereign over key
constitutional changes and devolved bodies are sovereign over the policy areas devolved to them.

Other Possible Essay Questions To Practice

Adapting This Plan To Answer
Evaluate the view that Parliament has recently regained its sovereignty. (30)

Evaluate the view that the UK Parliament holds the most sovereignty of any body in the UK. (30)

Evaluate The View That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK. (30) Politics Explained Essay Plan 4
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Evaluate The View That Parliament Is No Longer Sovereign In The UK. (30) Politics Explained Essay Plan 5