Define and explain the terms ‘Parliament’ and

‘Government.’

In the UK, Parliament consists of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the
Monarch. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses but
legislation can originate from either the Lords or the Commons. The House of
Commons is composed of 650 members who are directly elected by British and
Northern Irish citizens to represent single-member constituencies. The leader of a
Party that wins more than half the seats or less than half but can count on the
support of smaller parties to achieve enough support to pass law is invited by the
Queen to form a government. Legally the Queen is the head of the government and
no business in Parliament can be taken without her authority. The House of Lords is a
body of long-serving, unelected members: 92 hereditary peers, 26 bishops and 588
peers of whom have been appointed lifetime seats. Being the less powerful of the
two houses, the House of Lords can only block a money bill for a month if the bill has
been certified by the House of Commons. In addition to functioning as the second
chamber of Parliament, the House of Lords was also the final court of appeal for
much of the law in the UK. This changed however in October 2009 when the
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom opened and acquired the former jurisdiction
of the House of Lords.

A nation’s prime minister is almost always the leader of the majority party in
the lower house of Parliament, but only holds his or her office as long as the
‘confidence of the house’ is maintained. If members of the lower house lose faith in
their leader for whatever reason, they can call a ‘vote of no confidence’ and force the
PM to resign. This can be particularly dangerous to a government when the
distribution of seats is relatively even, in which case a new election is often called
shortly thereafter.

The Government is like the management of the country. It makes the

important decisions about for example, foreign policy, education or health, although
many of these decisions have to be approved by Parliament. However the
Government can decide to go to war without consulting Parliament as this is done on
behalf of the Monarch. If Parliament thinks that a particular Government policy is
against the public interest, then it can force the Government to change its mind. A
proposal might then be altered, or perhaps withdrawn altogether. In April 1986 the
House of Commons voted against the Government’s Shops Bill as a majority in the
House at that time opposed the Government’s plans for Sunday trading.

Over 1,000 people are entitled to sit in the two Houses of Parliament, but
only about 100 of these belong to the Government. Members of the Government are
usually members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, to enable
Parliament to keep a check on their work by asking questions and debating. In both
Chambers the two sides, Government and Opposition, sit facing one another and
Government ministers sit on the front bench on the Government side. They are
known as Government front-benchers and members of either house that belong to
the same party as the Government but do not hold a Government post are known as
Government back-benchers.

The Official Opposition is divided in the same way. On the Opposition front
bench sit the Official Opposition spokespeople, e.g. on education, health or defence.
Each of these spokespeople concentrates on studying the work of a particular
Government Department. The senior spokespeople from the Official Opposition are
often referred to as the ‘Shadow Cabinet’ because they shadow the work of the
Government. By keeping themselves up to date in their own subject areas, they are
able to mount challenges to the Government, criticising its policies and questioning
the wisdom of minister’s decisions.

Parliament has to ensure that the Government is working properly and that
its decisions are in the public interest. Every member, no matter what party he or she
belongs to, has the duty of examining the work of the Government, but it is the
Opposition which plays the leading part in this. Parliament can limit the power of the
Government by voting against its proposed laws, by restricting the funds which the
Government has to spend, by asking questions which test the Government, by
challenging the Government in debates and by examining Government work in
committees.