How effective is parliament?
Parliament in the UK is mainly made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The ‘executive’ refers to the Government. The effectiveness of parliament is judged by how effectively the government is held to account by the Commons and Lords. One of parliament’s main functions is holding the government to account.
One of the effective ways parliaments hold the government to account is it forces government ministers to justify their policies and explain why they were developed as well as explain the future effects of these policies. Debates are a perfect opportunity to hold the government to account they provide an open floor for Mps to speak and question members of the government, however this is usually unreliable seeing as PM’s get pre-prepared questions. The opposition party and everyone else within parliament have the duty to criticise and scrutinise government bills. This works to keep the government in check as it forces them to reconsider their decisions, make changes if necessary and defend their ideas from the oppositions criticism. This then works to ensure that policy is well thought out, and discussed before it is passed through the House of Lords. It is Parliaments ability to question that allows them to keep the power of government in check; this suggests that parliament is effective on government to a large extent. An example of a governments defeat would be the Hunting with dogs’ act 2001.
However, Parliament is limited in its ability to stop government policies,by the parliament act 1911 and 1949, this act meant that if a government tried to pass a bill and the House of commons suggested changes that the government did not approve of, the government could simply wait for two years and then submit the same bill which would then automatically pass and become legislation. The parliament act 1949 then shortened the time that the house of lords could withhold a bill to just one year. This worryingly means that in theory, if the government are willing to wait one year, they can pass any act they please although this is unlikely to happen. Unfortunately this does mean to some extent parliaments power to control the power of the government is somewhat limited and therefore suggest that parliament isn’t a very effective with its reign on the government take for example the Hunting with Dogs Acts which was previously defeated, was eventually passed in 2004.
Every Wednesday the Prime Minister Takes part in PMQ within the House of Commons which is an open space for any Mp’s to ask questions about, policy, decisions; future decisions or past actions. This allows Mp’s to understand why certain decisions have been made and gain more information on future legislation which opposition will then play a role in scrutinising. This makes way for parliament to directly communicate as well as question the PM on any queries or issues they may have and therefore this is an effective way on parliament behalf of keeping the power of government in check. This suggests that Parliament is an effective check on Government to an extent but PMQ does suffer criticism for being undisciplined, rowdy and compared to a school playground- this has done nothing for the image of parliament but instead has questioned their ability to hold the government to account, therefore questioning parliament’s effectiveness. It can also be said the PMQ has become more of a contest between the opposition leader and the PM and due to these showdowns it has become more of a media show rather than actually holding the Government to account. This weakens the effectiveness in actually questioning the Pm therefore weakening Parliaments ability to hold the government to account, this also suggesting parliaments lacks effectiveness in its actions.
Select committees work in both houses, checking and reporting on areas ranging from the work of government departments to economic affairs. These select committees work just like the opposition to scrutinise policy, but in more detail. They then report back on issues within the policy; this allows room for the government’s power to be checked in detail before it is passed on to the next stage. Select committees are important because they look into policy in great depth in order to check everything is in order. Thus this suggesting that parliament is an effective check on government to a large extent. Although it could be argued that they are not as effective as they seem at holding government to account. Select committees are made up of Mps from the House of Commons. This meaning that the Government itself chooses who sits on these committees to a certain extent and allocates a chair for each one. This power then enables them to choose members carefully in order to influence decisions in their favour. This then destroys the idea behind select committees and further damages parliaments’ ability to keep Government in check. This contributing to parliament’s lack of ability to effectively hold the government accountable.
In the UK due to our model of parliament, Government almost always have a majority in the House of Commons. This means that although they could still be criticised by the opposition and other Mps when decisions are made through voting, Governments are likely to succeed due to their majority. This makes it easier for them to push through policy that was unpopular with opposition without fear of it being blocked by others. Majorities of 66 in 2005 and 83 with the coalition in 2010 meant that all the other parties united couldn’t defeat the government thus rendering parliament powerless to an extent. This also being a reason parliament isn’t very effective with its power.
To conclude, parliament can effectively wield power over government to some extent. And although it does seem that parliament can apply various measures to criticise government decisions, governments have ways of working around these flaws in order to ensure they get their own way in decision making, this flaws parliaments power. However to a certain extent it could be said by parliament simply scrutinising government, they make government rethink as well as reconsider their policies and this may be enough for them to adjust decisions/policies for the better and therefore it can be said that parliaments power Is effective to the extent that it can keep the government in check to the point where they are on the right line and are making decisions that have a positive effect on the people.