HOUSE OF LORDS

House of Lords



House of Lords

Problem Statement

“The relatively recent reform of the House of Lords was necessary in the United Kingdom's constitutional evolution”.

Introduction

The House of Lords plays a crucial role in our legislature and, as a second chamber, is a vital part of our constitutional arrangements. The House of Lords shares responsibility for legislating with the House of Commons, Bills are debated and scrutinized in both Houses. The House of Lords has a reputation for the careful consideration of legislation and to delay and ask the Government and House of Commons to think again and, in some cases, offer possible amendments for further consideration (Barnett 2003, 52).

The House of Lords also plays a vital role in scrutinizing the work of the Government and holding it to account for its decisions and activities. It is done by the members by asking different oral, and written questions by providing questionnaire, the government statements are responded by the debating some of the key issues which are highligetd in primary stage of the addressing issues.

Select Committees of the House of Lords behavior ial exploration into matters of public policy and issue their results to Parliament. The Government believes that these functions should remain unchanged when the House of Lord is reformed and that it should continue this valuable work. The Government believes that the change in composition of the second chamber ought not to change the status of that chamber as a House of Parliament or the existing constitutional relationship between the two Houses of Parliament (Baldwin 2003, 65).

Reforms of House of Lords

The affiliation with in two Houses of Parliament is administer by convention and statute. The parliament act of 1911 and 1949, usually provide the initial and basic knowledge about the Law of lord, and subordinate to these house of common law.These include that the House of Lords should pass the legislative programmed of the Government which commands the confidence of the House of Commons (Baker 2001, 58).

The principle that the Government of the day can continue in office only if, it retains the confidence of the House of Commons and the consequence, whether or not a Bill has been included in a Manifesto, the House of Lords should think very carefully about rejecting a Bill which the Commons has approved, and the principle that the House of Lords will consider Government Bills in a reasonable time.

The Government believes that clause 2 of the draft Bill is the best way of achieving this because it does not attempt to codify the existing powers of the Houses in legislation but rather, as now, accepts that the position is a matter of convention.

Size and Composition

There are 789 members of the House of Lords1, but the average daily attendance in the 2009-2010 sessions was only 388 members. Whilst the total membership, of the House of Lords, it is thus more than the House of Commons, the size of the “working house” there is significantly smaller. In most other countries, the second chamber is substantially ...