PARLIAMENT

Key developments in Parliament's history

Anglo-Saxon times - the Witan

1099 - Westminster Hall built

1215 - Magna Carta Libertatum

1265 - Simon de Montfort's parliament

1295 - the Model Parliament

14^th century - split into the Commons and the Lords

1407 - all taxes must originate in the Commons

15^th century - Lords Temporal known as “peers”

1834 - Houses of Parliament burnt down - Charles Barry wins the competition for the new

design - to be rebuilt in 1852

1876 -Appellate Jurisdiction Act - makes the House of Lords the final court of appeal

1911 - Parliament Act

1918 - Representation of People Act

1928 - Equal Franchise Act

1958 - Life Peerage Act

1963 - Peerage Act

1969 - voting age lowered to 18

1999 - House of Lords Act - ending the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords;

as a temporary measure, until next election (2005), 92 hereditary peers are allowed to sit in the House.

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It is often said that the Speaker Lenthall's celebrated reply in the House to King Charles I in 1642, where he had come to arrest five Members for treason, sums up the then new philosophy of the Speaker's duty to the House:

May it please Your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here, and I humbly beg Your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what Your Majesty is pleased to demand of me.

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PARLIAMENTARY DAY:

1. 5-minute prayer:

Lord, the God of righteousness and truth, grant to our Queen and her government, to Members of Parliament and all in positions of responsibility, the guidance of your Spirit. May they never lead the nation wrongly through love of power, desire to please, or unworthy ideals but laying aside all private interests and prejudices keep in mind their responsibility to seek to improve the condition of all mankind; so may your kingdom come and your name be hallowed. Amen."

2. Question Time - most exciting part, usually about an hour; questions answered by ministers - usually provided by civil servants and printed in Order Papers - sometimes supplementary questions;

PM answers questions on Wed 3.15-3.30 p.m.

3. Statements

4. Main business, debates on bills

5. Voting)

6. Adjournment Debates - for 30 minutes after adjournment individual MPs may raise matters of special concern.

The complicated rules of parliamentary behavior are regulated by Standing Orders, based on Thomas Erskine May's Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament, 1844.

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COMPOSITION OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS

• led by Lord Chancellor

• Lords Temporal - 92 hereditary peers

• about 600 life peers

• Lords Spiritual: 2 Archbishops of the Church of England (Canterbury and York); 24 senior bishops of the Church of England (there's no provision for other church members to sit in the Lords, but M. Thatcher made Chief Rabbi a life peer)

• Lords of Appeal in Ordinary = Law Lords - most senior judges in the land

Parliamentary Bills

There are four types of parliamentary bills:

Public Bills (Finance bills) introduced by the government. Authorization of taxes in a form of the annual

Finance Act is presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Public Bills (Non finance bills) introduced either by the government or the opposition.

Private Members' Bills introduced by individual MPs.

Private Bills/Personal Bills introduced by local authorities, a company or an individual - always begin in the House of Lords

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How a public bill becomes a law

Stages:

I. The text of a bill is prepared by civil servants and the Parliamentary Council (legal experts who deal with the technical side of the bill).

II. The government brings up the bill.

III. The Cabinet approves the bill.

IV. A minister in charge presents the bill in the House of Commons.

V. First Reading - a formal announcement of the bill with no debate.

VI. Second Reading - the debate on the general principles of the bill and voting.

VII. Committee Stage - detailed examination of the bill by a committee. Voting on amendments.

VIII. Report Stage - the House of Commons considers the amendments.

IX. Third Reading - the amended bill is debated as a whole.

X. The bill is sent to the House of Lords where it goes through the same stages. If any amendments are suggested it goes back to the House of Commons. The Lords cannot reject a bill.

XI. When the bill is passed in the House of Commons it is given the Royal Assent by the Queen (the royal assent, included in Letters Patent, is read out in Parliament in Norman French: La reyne le veult) and becomes law.

TERMS

Green Paper -

Hansard -

HP Sauce -

Motion -

Order Paper -

Pairing -

Point of Order -

Portcullis -

Prorogation -

Select Committee -

Standing Committee -

White Paper -

Whip -

• Chief Government Whip

• Opposition Chief Whip

• Three-line whip

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