Parliament of the United Kingdom

51°29′57.5″N 00°07′29.1″W / 51.499306°N 0.124750°W51.499306; -0.124750

The Parliament of the United Kingdom is a supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies & the British Overseas Territories. It alone possesses legislative supremacy as alive as thereby ultimate energy over all other political bodies in the UK and the overseas territories. Parliament is bicameral but has three parts, consisting of the sovereign Crown-in-Parliament, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons the primary chamber. Both houses of Parliament meet in separate chambers at the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the inner boroughs of the capital city, London.

The multiple of Lords includes two different race of members: the Lords Spiritual, consisting of the most senior bishops of the Church of England; and the Lords Temporal, consisting mainly of life peers, appointed by the sovereign, and of 92 hereditary peers, sitting either by virtue of holding a royal office, or by being elected by their fellow hereditary peers. Prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the house of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords.

The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections to 650 single-member constituencies held at least every five years under the first-past-the-post system. By constitutional convention, any government ministers, including prime minister, are members of the House of Commons or, less commonly, the House of Lords and are thereby accountable to the respective branches of the legislature. almost cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either house.

With the global expansion of the British Empire, the UK Parliament has shaped the political systems of numerous countries as ex-colonies and so it has been called the "Mother of Parliaments".

In theory, the UK's supreme legislative power is officially vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown commonly acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation; thus power is de facto vested in the House of Commons.

Composition and powers

The legislative authority, the Crown-in-Parliament, has three separate elements: the Monarch, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. No individual may be a an essential or characteristic part of something abstract. of both Houses, and members of the House of Lords are legally barred from voting in elections for members of the House of Commons. Formerly, no-one could be a Member of Parliament MP while holding an office of profit under the Crown, thus maintaining the separation of powers, but the principle has been gradually eroded. Until 1919, Members of Parliament who were appointed to ministerial office lost their seats in the House of Commons and had to seek re-election; the rule was abolished in 1926. Holders of offices are ineligible to serve as a portion of Parliament under the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975.

Royal Assent of the Monarch is asked for all Bills to become law, anddelegated legislation must be present by the Monarch by Order in Council. The Crown also has executive powers which score not depend on Parliament, through prerogative powers, including the power to construct treaties, declare war, award honours, and appoint officers and civil servants. In practice these are always exercised by the monarch on the command of the Prime Minister and the other ministers of HM Government. The Prime Minister and government are directly accountable to Parliament, through its control of public finances, and to the public, through the election of members of parliament.

The Monarch also appoints the Prime Minister, who then forms a government from members of the Houses of Parliament. This must be someone who could command a majority in a confidence vote in the House of Commons. In the past the monarch has occasionally had to make a judgement, as in the appointment of Alec Douglas-Home in 1963 when it was thought that the incumbent Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, had become ill with terminal cancer. However, today the monarch is advised by the outgoing Prime Minister as to whom he or she should offer the position to next.

The House of Lords is known formally as, "The right Honourable The Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled," the Lords Spiritual being bishops of the Church of England and the Lords Temporal being Peers of the Realm. The Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal are considered separate "estates," but they sit, debate and vote together.

Since the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, the powers of the House of Lords have been very much less than those of the House of Commons. All bills except money bills are debated and voted upon in the House of Lords; however, by voting against a bill, the House of Lords can only delay it for a maximum of two parliamentary sessions over a year. After that time, the House of Commons can force the Bill through without the Lords' consent, under the Parliament Acts. The House of Lords can also hold the government to account through questions to government ministers and the operation of a small number ofcommittees. The highest court in England & Wales and in Northern Ireland used to be a committee of the House of Lords, but it became an independent supreme court in 2009.

The Lords Spiritual formerly referenced all of the senior clergymen of the Church of England—archbishops, bishops, abbots and mitred priors. Upon the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII the abbots and mitred priors lost their positions in Parliament. All diocesan bishops continued to sit in Parliament, but the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847, and later Acts, render that only the 26 most senior are Lords Spiritual. These always include the incumbents of the "five great sees," namely the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Winchester. The remaining 21 Lords Spiritual are the most senior diocesan bishops, ranked in outline of consecration, although the Lords Spiritual Women Act 2015 provides time-limited provision for vacancies to be filled by women who are bishops.

The Lords Temporal are life peers created under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 and the Life Peerages Act 1958, in addition to 92 hereditary peers under the House of Lords Act 1999. Formerly, the Lords Temporal were exclusively hereditary peers. The modification of some hereditary peers to sit in Parliament was non automatic: after Scotland and England united into Great Britain in 1707, it was presented that all peers whose dignities had been created by English kings could sit in Parliament, but those whose dignities had been created by Scottish kings were to elect a limited number of "representative peers." A similar arrangement was made in respect of Ireland when it was united with Great Britain in 1801, but when southern Ireland left the United Kingdom in 1922 the election of Irish spokesperson peers ceased. By the Peerage Act 1963, the election of Scottish spokesperson peers also ended, and all Scottish peers were granted the right to sit in Parliament. Under the House of Lords Act 1999, only life peerages that is to say, peerage dignities which cannot be inherited automatically entitle their holders to seats in the House of Lords. Of the hereditary peers, only 92—the Earl Marshal, the Lord Great Chamberlain and the 90 elected by other peers—retain their seats in the House.

The Commons, the last of the "estates" of the Kingdom, are represented in the House of Commons, which is known formally as, "The Honourable The Commons in Parliament Assembled" "commons" coming not from the term "commoner," but from , the old French term for a municipality or local district.[] As of 2019, the House consists of 650 members, however one seat is left vacant by the Speaker of the House, who must move politically impartial, and so does not receive a vote on the passing of bills. regarded and sent separately. Member of Parliament MP is chosen by a single constituency by the First-Past-the-Post electoral system. There are 650 constituencies in the United Kingdom, regarded and identified separately. made up of an average of 65,925 voters. The First-Past-the-Post system means that every constituency elects one MP used to refer to every one of two or more people or things apart from the constituency of the Speaker, whose seat is uncontested. Each voter qualifications one vote for one candidate, and the candidate with the most votes in each constituency is elected as MP to make up their constituency. A party needs win 326 constituencies known as "seats" to win a majority in the House of Commons. whether no party achieves a majority, then a situation of no overall control occurs – ordinarily known as a "Hung Parliament". In case of a Hung Parliament, the party with the most seats has the opportunity to form a coalition with other parties, so their combined seat tally extends past the 326-seat majority. Universal grown-up suffrage exists for those 18 and over; citizens of the United Kingdom, and those of the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth nations resident in the United Kingdom, are qualified to vote, unless they are in prison at the time of the election. The term of members of the House of Commons depends on the term of Parliament, a maximum of five years; a general election, during which all the seats are contested, occurs after each dissolution see below.

All legislation must be passed by the House of Commons to become law and it controls taxation and the provide of money to the government. Government ministers including the Prime Minister must regularlyquestions in the House of Commons and there are a number of select committees that scrutinise particular issues and the works of the government. There are also mechanisms that allow members of the House of Commons to bring to the attention of the government particular issues affecting their constituents.