Government Policies Hand-out 1. Parliament: The role of parliament is a necessary part of UK politics. Parliament has to scrutinise the work of government, they do this by questioning the government ministers and having debates to view the proposed laws and amendments to legislation. Decisions are often made via a vote. Smaller groups will look at specific policy issues and legislation in detail.
To what extent is the Cabinet an important body? The cabinet consists of the senior ministers in the Government. Most cabinet ministers are heads of government departments such as the Treasury, Foreign Office and Home Office. Cabinet ministers must be members of Parliament and most are drawn from the House of Commons. The main functions of the Cabinet are registering and ratifying decisions taken elsewhere in the cabinet system, discussing and deciding on major issues, receiving reports on key developments and determining government business, and settling disputes between government departments.
Mayoral reforms have also gone far enough as many as 16 cities now have mayors in office concentrating on better representing their people. There is still however many things, which need to be reformed by parliament and the government such as Human Rights Act, because they are in place in the UK as more of a caution instead of an actual legislation and judges can not even annul legislations that are in breach of the HRA they can only send the case to legislation to parliament where it will be possibly changed. Electoral systems are also an important factor that has not been reformed far enough, because if the electoral system is faulty then people will not get the representation they
If the government loses support of the lower house then it must resign. Royal Assent: Royal assent is the signing of a proposed law by the Crown’s representative before it becomes a law. Separation of powers: The principle of separation of powers refers to the fact that there are three separate types of powers in our parliamentary system. These are legislative power, executive power and judicial power. Judicial power is separate from legislative power and executive power.
Although, on the other hand the soveriegnty of parliament does widely interfere with the judicarys ability to protect civil liberties in britain. Acts of parliament are binding on everyone within the UK including the supreme court. The soveriegn status and power of Parliament puts it above the judicary. This means that if a ruling is passed and the government do not approve they are able to avoid the ruling. This was seen in 2005 when in response to the Belmarsh case the government passed the 2005 'Prevention of Terrorism Act'.
Their powers are delegated to them by the province in which they are located. * The legislative branch of government passes laws that impact on business operations. For example, when government enacts a law, failure to comply can result in fines and other penalties, including closure of the business. Ignorance of a law means that business loses out on opportunities to influence government policy and to take advantage of favourable laws. And failure to challenge laws that are unconstitutional means that business is needlessly
n Great Britain laws are made in Parliament at Westminster. Its law-making status makes Parliament Great Britain's main legislative body - though the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament do have legislative capabilities. However, it is difficult to estimate what the impact of law making by the European Union will be in future years. To date, most EU laws that have been imposed on the UK (and other members off the EU) have concerned environmental issues. Some political parties in the UK, such as the UK Independence Party, fear that the EU will broaden its net with regards to areas where it will impose legislation.
Some of the most recognizable and debated statements are found in the Declaration. During this time period the colonies were faced with what they felt were serious injustices. and as British citizens, the fact that they did not have the same rights as those living in England itself was a tremendous insult. One of the biggest grievances was that they were not allowed representation in Parliament, or to establish any representative form of local government, When the King did allow government, he appointed men whose loyalty to the Crown seemed to be the only qualification needed, not the ability to govern. Because the British government was not fulfilling Jefferson’s previously mentioned definition of a government’s duties; they were forced to take the very necessary step of removing themselves from the King’s rule and ruling themselves.
There are certain MP’s that vote against their party’s instructions with no good reason. These are called rebel MP’s. An example of an MP that does this is John McDonald of the Labour party. Legislation also has to go through parliament before it becomes an official law, it has to go through various reading stages and the parliament has the power to send laws back to be changed and also the power to delay, even stop laws being made legitimate. For example, the parliament MP’s stopped the 90-day detention law when they repeatedly delayed the law.
Common law, which has developed over many years becoming accepted due to court judgements. The laws and customs of Parliament re also a source of the constitution. Works of authority are also referred to as authoritative sources such as books by Dicey or Bagehot. Finally, European Union Law also impacts the UK constitution as the judgements of the European court of Justice, in general EU law has precedence over that passed by Parliament. A codified constitution is too inflexible and cannot adapt to the changing political circumstance, such as society changing.