What are the roles of the two Houses of Parliament in the UK?

Question

Why does the UK have two Houses of Parliament - the House of Commons and the House of Lords - and what are the main roles of each?

Answer 1

The two-House system used in the UK Parliament is designed to allow both the common people (in the Commons) to have their say on matters through Parliamentary representation, and for the decisions made to be reviewed by peers (in the Lords). In this way the two-chamber system acts as a check and balance for both Houses.

Common Features

Most Bills can be introduced to either House, and most Bills pass through both Houses (sometimes more than once, should the Houses disagree on the Bill) before they go on to gain Royal Assent. Either House can propose amendments to a Bill.

The Commons

Members of the House of Commons are publicly elected by way of General or By-Elections and their role is to represent the people of their constituency.

Members of the Commons (MPs) debate political issues and proposals for new laws. It is one of the key places where government ministers, like the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the principal figures of the main political parties, work.

The Commons alone is responsible for making decisions on financial Bills, such as proposed new taxes. The Lords can consider these Bills but cannot block or amend them.

The Lords

Members of the House of Lords are mostly appointed. They include experts in many fields which are generally used to determine the feasibility of a Bill before them.

The House of Lords complements the work of the House of Commons. It makes laws, holds government to account and investigates policy issues.

The Lords used to have a veto to stop legislation from the Commons gaining Royal Assent. This was reduced by the Parliament Acts to the ability to delay a Bill by up to a year, although there are some types of Bills to which the Parliament Acts do not apply:

• Bills prolonging the length of a Parliament beyond five years
• Private Bills
• Bills sent up to the Lords less than a month before the end of a session
• Bills which start in the Lords

This enables the Commons to "force through" a Bill which has stalled by disagreements between the Houses.

There are three types of Lords:

• Life Peers

  Appointed for their lifetime only, these Lords' titles are not passed on to their children. The Queen formally appoints life Peers on the advice and recommendation of the Prime Minister.

• Archbishops and bishops

  A limited number of 26 Church of England archbishops and bishops sit in the House, passing their membership on to the next most senior bishop when they retire. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York traditionally get life peerages on retirement.

• Elected hereditary Peers

  The right of hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords was ended in 1999 by the House of Lords Act but 92 Members were elected internally to remain until the next stage of the Lords reform process.

References

Various pages from the UK Parliament website