Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. Since 1999, varying degrees of powers have been devolved to the national parliaments of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Each devolved parliament has different devolved powers, with Scotland being the most powerful amongst the three devolved parliaments. The central UK Parliament retains the power to legislate in reserved matters, including broadcasting, defence, and currency.

It meets at the Palace of Westminster in London. Parliament possesses legislative supremacy and thereby holds ultimate power over all other political bodies in the United Kingdom and the Overseas Territories. While Parliament is bicameral, it has three parts: the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The three parts acting together to legislate may be described as the King-in-Parliament. The Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, while the House of Lords' powers are generally limited to delaying legislation.

The House of Commons is the elected lower chamber of Parliament, with elections to 650 single-member constituencies held at least every five years under the first-past-the-post system. By constitutional convention, all government ministers, including the prime minister, are members of the House of Commons (MPs), or less commonly the House of Lords, and are thereby accountable to the respective branches of the legislature. Most Cabinet ministers are from the Commons, while junior ministers can be from either house.

The House of Lords is the upper chamber of Parliament, comprising two types of members. The more numerous are the Lords Temporal, consisting of life peers appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the prime minister. The less numerous Lords Spiritual consist of up to 26 bishops of the Church of England. Before the establishment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009, the House of Lords performed judicial functions through the law lords.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom is one of the oldest legislatures in the world, and is characterised by the stability of its governing institutions and its capacity to absorb change. The Westminster system shaped the political systems of the nations once ruled by the British Empire, and thus has been called the "mother of parliaments".

History

The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England (established 1215) and the Parliament of Scotland (), both Acts of Union stating, "That the United Kingdom of Great Britain be represented by one and the same Parliament to be styled The Parliament of Great Britain." At the start of the 19th century, Parliament was further enlarged by Acts of Union ratified by the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland, which abolished the latter and added 100 Irish MPs and 32 Lords to the former to create the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 formally amended the name to the "Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", five years after the secession of the Irish Free State.

Parliament meets in the Palace of Westminster, the same location as the English Parliament had met, and it has continued there up to the present. The House of Lords and House of Commons sit in their respective chambers, with exception following the 1834 fire and 1941 bombing during the Blitz which destroyed large parts of the chambers. During the reconstruction the Lords sat in the Painted Chamber and White Chamber while the Commons sat in the former Lords Chamber for 17 years following the fire until 1851. As the Commons Chamber was destroyed following the bombing, both houses met in the Church House annexe and then the Commons met to the Lords Chamber and the Lords met in the Robing Room for 9 years until 1950.

Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

thumb|Print of the [[Palace of Westminster, before it burnt down in 1834]]

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created on 1 January 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union 1800. The principle of ministerial responsibility to the lower house (Commons) did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons (MPs) were elected in an antiquated electoral system, under which constituencies of vastly different sizes existed. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, could elect two members, as could the borough of Dunwich, which had almost completely disappeared into the sea due to land erosion.

Many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords (peers), who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, the electoral system for the House of Commons was progressively regularised. No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive.

The Chartist movement gained popularity at this time, formed mostly of emerging working class people advocating peacefully for reform. The People's Charter petition garnered millions of signatures and was presented to Parliament in 1838, 1842, and 1848 with the following demands:

A vote for every man aged twenty-one years and above, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for a crime.
The secret ballot to protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.
No property qualification for Members of Parliament (MPs), to allow the constituencies to return the man of their choice.
Payment of Members, enabling tradesmen, working men, or other persons of modest means to leave or interrupt their livelihood to attend to the interests of the nation.
Equal constituencies, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing less populous constituencies to have as much or more weight than larger ones.
Annual parliamentary elections, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation, since no purse could buy a constituency under a system of universal manhood suffrage in every twelve months.

The Second Reform Act (1867), and Third Reform Act (1884) expanded the franchise gradually, and the adoption of all but the last of these demands came through:

Representation of the People Act 1918 (gave the vote to all men over 21 as well as women over 30)
Ballot Act 1872 (introduced secret ballots)
Abolish Property Qualifications Act 1858 (abolished property requirements for MPs)
Parliament Act 1911 (Introduced payment for MPs, initially £400 annually)
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Representation of the People Act 1948, and Redistribution of Seats Act 1949 (made equally populated constituencies, and later abolished multi-member constituencies)

The supremacy of the British House of Commons was reaffirmed in the early 20th century. In 1909, the Commons passed the "People's Budget", which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, rejected the Budget. On the basis of the Budget's popularity and the Lords' consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910.

Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, which sought to restrict the powers of the House of Lords. (He did not reintroduce the land tax provision of the People's Budget.) When the Lords refused to pass the bill, Asquith countered with a promise extracted from the King in secret before the second general election of 1910 and requested the creation of several hundred Liberal peers, so as to erase the Conservative majority in the House of Lords. In the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill.

The Parliament Act 1911, as it became, prevented the Lords from blocking a money bill (a bill dealing with taxation), and allowed them to delay any other bill for a maximum of three sessions (reduced to two sessions in 1949), after which it could become law over their objections. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the House of Lords has always retained the unrestricted power to veto any bill outright which attempts to extend the life of a parliament.

Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The result of the 1918 general election in Ireland showed a landslide victory for the Irish republican party Sinn Féin, who vowed in their manifesto to establish an independent Irish Republic. Accordingly, Sinn Féin MPs, though ostensibly elected to sit in the House of Commons, refused to take their seats in Westminster, and instead assembled in 1919 to proclaim Irish independence and form a revolutionary unicameral parliament for the independent Irish Republic, called Dáil Éireann.

In 1920, in parallel to the Dáil, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created home rule parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster. The number of Northern Ireland seats was increased again after the introduction of direct rule in 1973.

The Irish republicans responded by declaring the elections to these home rule Parliaments, held on the same day in 1921, to be the basis of membership for a new Dáil Éireann. While the elections in Northern Ireland were both contested and won by Unionist parties, in Southern Ireland, all 128 candidates for the Southern Irish seats were returned unopposed. Of these, 124 were won by Sinn Féin and four by independent Unionists representing Dublin University (Trinity College). Since only four MPs sat in the home rule Southern Irish parliament, with the remaining 124 being in the Republic's Second Dáil, the home rule parliament was adjourned sine die without ever having operated.

alt=Victoria Tower In London.|thumb|upright=0.75|Victoria Tower in London

In 1922, pursuant to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the revolutionary Irish Republic was replaced by the Irish Free State, recognised by the United Kingdom as a separate state (and thus, no longer represented in the Westminster Parliament), while Northern Ireland would remain British, and in 1927, parliament was renamed the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Reform Act 1928 gave universal suffrage with a voting age of 21, and the Reform Act 1969 lowered the voting age to 18, making the United Kingdom the first major democratic country to do so.

Further reforms to the House of Lords were made in the 20th century. The Life Peerages Act 1958 authorised the regular creation of life peerage dignities. By the 1960s, the regular creation of hereditary peerage dignities had ceased; thereafter, almost all new peers were life peers only.

The House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, although it made an exception for 92 of them to be elected to life-terms by the other hereditary peers, with by-elections upon their death. The House of Lords is now a chamber that is subordinate to the House of Commons. Additionally, the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 led to abolition of the judicial functions of the House of Lords with the creation of the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in October 2009.

Composition and powers

Under the UK's constitution, Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the state. Whilst the privy council can also issue legislation through orders-in-council, this power may be limited by Parliament, like all other exercises of the royal prerogative.

The legislative authority, the King-in-Parliament, has three separate elements: the Monarch, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. As a result, a bill must be passed by both houses (or just the House of Commons under the Parliament Act 1911) and receive royal assent for it to become law.

Executive powers (including those granted by legislation or forming part of the prerogative) are not formally exercised by Parliament itself. However, these powers are in practice exercised on the advice of government ministers, who must be drawn from and be accountable to the Parliament.

Monarch

Whilst the monarch is a constitutive element of parliament, they do not debate bills or otherwise contribute to political debate. Their royal assent is required for a bill to become law; however, this has not been refused since 1708 and is largely a formality. Assent is granted by the monarch (or counsellors of state) signing letters patent (affixed with the Great Seal of the Realm) prepared by the clerk of the Crown listing all bills passed by the houses of Parliament up to a certain date. To be complete, Parliament must be notified that assent has been given. Assent may also be granted in person by the monarch in the House of Lords; however, this has not happened since 1854. Alternatively, assent may be granted by royal commission, as commonly occurred before 1967 but now only occurs when bills are assented to before prorogation.

House of Lords

thumb|right|Two of the incumbent speakers of the Parliament, [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle (left) and Lord Speaker The Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (right), March 2026]]

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.

The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 significantly reduced the legislative powers of the House of Lords relative to the House of Commons. Whilst the Lords debates and votes on all bills (except money bills), their refusal to pass a bill may only delay its passage for a maximum of two parliamentary sessions over a year. After this, the bill may receive royal assent and become law without the Lords' consent.

Like in the House of Commons, the House of Lords may scrutinise governments through asking questions to government ministers that sit in the Lords and through the operation of a small number of select committees.

The Lords used to also exercise judicial power and acted as the UK's supreme legislative court. Appeals were not heard by the whole body, but a committee of senior judges that were appointed to the Lords to act for this purpose. This power was lost when it was transferred to the newly created Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009.

From time to time, and especially recently, arguments have been made suggesting the House of Lords is obsolete or unnecessary. In 2023, a commission led by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated that the existence of the House of Lords was "indefensible" and recommended that the Lords in its current form be abolished and replaced by an "Assembly of the Nations and Regions".

Lords Spiritual

The Lords Spiritual of the Lords' currently consists of the archbishops of Canterbury and York, the bishops of London, Durham and Winchester (who sit by right regardless of seniority) and 21 other diocesan bishops of the Church of England, ranked in order of consecration, subject to women being preferred if one is eligible from 2015 to 2030 under the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015. and Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Act 2025. Formerly, the Lords Spiritual included all of the senior clergymen of the Church of England—archbishops, bishops, abbots and mitred priors.

Lords Temporal

The Lords Temporal consists all life peers appointed under the Life Peerages Act 1958 (currently numbering around 700).

Life peers are appointed by the monarch, on the advice of the prime minister. Typically, these are members of the party of the prime minister, however some peers from other parties are also generally appointed.

House of Commons

As of 2019, the House consists of 650 members; this total includes the Speaker, who by convention renounces partisan affiliation and does not take part in debates or votes, as well as three Deputy Speakers, who also do not participate in debates or votes but formally retain their party membership. Each 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, each made up of an average of 65,925 voters. The First-Past-the-Post system means that every constituency elects one MP each. Each voter assigns one vote for one candidate, and the candidate with the most votes in each constituency is elected as MP to represent their constituency. Members sit for a maximum of five years, although elections are generally called before that maximum limit is reached.

A party needs to win 326 constituencies (known as "seats") to win a majority in the House of Commons. If no party achieves a majority, then a situation of no overall control occurs – commonly 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.

The House of Commons is the most powerful of the components of Parliament, particularly due to its sole right to determine taxation and the supply of money to the government. Additionally, the prime minister and leader of the government sits in the House, having acquiring this position by virtue of having the confidence of the other members. This also means that the House is also the primary location in which the government faces scrutiny, as expressed through Question Time and the work of various select committees.

State Opening of Parliament

The State Opening of Parliament is an annual event that marks the commencement of a session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is held in the House of Lords Chamber. Before 2012, it took place in November or December, or, in a general election year, when the new Parliament first assembled. From 2012 onwards, the ceremony has taken place in May or June.

thumb|upright=0.75|right|Leading 17th-century Parliamentarian [[John Hampden is one of the Five Members annually commemorated.]]

Upon the signal of the Monarch, the Lord Great Chamberlain raises their wand of office to signal to Black Rod, who is charged with summoning the House of Commons and has been waiting in the Commons lobby. Black Rod turns and, under the escort of the Door-keeper of the House of Lords and an inspector of police, approaches the doors to the Chamber of the Commons. In 1642, King Charles I stormed into the House of Commons in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest the Five Members, who included the celebrated English patriot and leading Parliamentarian John Hampden. This action sparked the English Civil War. The wars established the constitutional rights of Parliament, a concept legally established in the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the subsequent Bill of Rights 1689. Since then, no British monarch has entered the House of Commons when it is in session. On Black Rod's approach, the doors are slammed shut against them, symbolising the rights of parliament and its independence from the monarch. As Wales is developing its own judicature, it is likely that the same principle will be applied.

Certain other judicial functions have historically been performed by the House of Lords. Until 1948, it was the body in which peers had to be tried for felonies or high treason; now, they are tried by normal juries. The last occasion of the trial of a peer in the House of Lords was in 1935. When the House of Commons impeaches an individual, the trial takes place in the House of Lords. Impeachments are now possibly defunct, as the last one occurred in 1806. In 2006, a number of MPs attempted to revive the custom, having signed a motion for the impeachment of Tony Blair, but this was unsuccessful.

Relationship with the UK Government

The British Government is answerable to the House of Commons. However, neither the Prime Minister nor members of the Government are elected by the House of Commons. Instead, the King requests the person most likely to command the support of a majority in the House, normally the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, to form a government. So that they may be accountable to the Lower House, the Prime Minister and most members of the Cabinet are, by convention, members of the House of Commons. The last prime minister to be a member of the House of Lords was Alec Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home, who became prime minister in 1963. To adhere to the convention under which he was responsible to the Lower House, he disclaimed his peerage and procured election to the House of Commons within days of becoming prime minister.

Governments have a tendency to dominate the legislative functions of Parliament, by using their in-built majority in the House of Commons, and sometimes using their patronage power to appoint supportive peers in the Lords. In practice, governments can pass any legislation (within reason) in the Commons they wish, unless there is major dissent by MPs in the governing party.

But even in these situations, it is highly unlikely a bill will be defeated, though dissenting MPs may be able to extract concessions from the government. In 1976, Quintin Hogg, Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone created a now widely used name for this behaviour, in an academic paper called "elective dictatorship".

Parliament controls the executive by passing or rejecting its Bills and by forcing Ministers of the Crown to answer for their actions, either at "Question Time" or during meetings of the parliamentary committees. In both cases, Ministers are asked questions by members of their Houses, and are obliged to answer.

Although the House of Lords may scrutinise the executive through Question Time and through its committees, it cannot bring down the Government. A ministry must always retain the confidence and support of the House of Commons. The Lower House may indicate its lack of support by rejecting a Motion of Confidence or by passing a Motion of No Confidence. Confidence Motions are generally originated by the Government to reinforce its support in the House, whilst No Confidence Motions are introduced by the Opposition. The motions sometimes take the form "That this House has [no] confidence in His Majesty's Government" but several other varieties, many referring to specific policies supported or opposed by Parliament, are used. For instance, a Confidence Motion of 1992 used the form, "That this House expresses the support for the economic policy of His Majesty's Government." Such a motion may theoretically be introduced in the House of Lords, but, as the Government need not enjoy the confidence of that House, would not be of the same effect as a similar motion in the House of Commons; the only modern instance of such an occurrence involves the 'No Confidence' motion that was introduced in 1993 and subsequently defeated.

Many votes are considered votes of confidence, although not including the language mentioned above. Important bills that form part of the Government's agenda (as stated in the Speech from the Throne) are generally considered matters of confidence. The defeat of such a bill by the House of Commons indicates that a Government no longer has the confidence of that House. The same effect is achieved if the House of Commons "withdraws Supply", that is, rejects the budget.

Where a Government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons, in other words has lost the ability to secure the basic requirement of the authority of the House of Commons to tax and to spend Government money, the Prime Minister is obliged either to resign, or seek the dissolution of Parliament and a new general election.

Where a prime minister has ceased to retain the necessary majority and requests a dissolution, the sovereign can in theory reject his or her request, forcing a resignation and allowing the Leader of the Opposition to be asked to form a new government. This power is used extremely rarely. The conditions that should be met to allow such a refusal are known as the Lascelles Principles. These conditions and principles are constitutional conventions arising from the Sovereign's reserve powers as well as longstanding tradition and practice, not laid down in law.

In practice, the House of Commons' scrutiny of the Government is very weak. Since the first-past-the-post electoral system is employed in elections, the governing party tends to enjoy a large majority in the Commons; there is often limited need to compromise with other parties. Modern British political parties are so tightly organised that they leave relatively little room for free action by their MPs. In many cases, MPs may be expelled from their parties for voting against the instructions of party leaders. During the 20th century, the Government has lost confidence issues only three times—twice in 1924, and once in 1979.

Parliamentary questions

thumb|A wide shot of Prime Ministers Questions in 2012, showing the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons packed with members]]

In the United Kingdom, question time in the House of Commons lasts for an hour each day from Monday to Thursday (2:30 to 3:30 pm on Mondays, 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and 9:30 to 10:30 am on Thursdays). Each Government department has its place in a rota which repeats every five weeks. The exception to this sequence are the Business Questions (Questions to the Leader of House of Commons), in which questions are answered each Thursday about the business of the House the following week. Also, Questions to the Prime Minister takes place each Wednesday from noon to 12:30 pm.

In addition to government departments, there are also questions to the Church commissioners.

Parliamentary sovereignty

Several different views have been taken of Parliament's sovereignty. According to the jurist Sir William Blackstone, "It has sovereign and uncontrollable authority in making, confirming, enlarging, restraining, abrogating, repealing, reviving, and expounding of laws, concerning matters of all possible denominations, ecclesiastical, or temporal, civil, military, maritime, or criminal... it can, in short, do every thing that is not naturally impossible."

A different view has been taken by the Scottish judge Thomas Cooper, 1st Lord Cooper of Culross. When he decided the 1953 case of MacCormick v. Lord Advocate as Lord President of the Court of Session, he stated, "The principle of unlimited sovereignty of Parliament is a distinctively English principle and has no counterpart in Scottish constitutional law." He continued, "Considering that the Union legislation extinguished the Parliaments of Scotland and England and replaced them by a new Parliament, I have difficulty in seeing why the new Parliament of Great Britain must inherit all the peculiar characteristics of the English Parliament but none of the Scottish." Nevertheless, he did not give a conclusive opinion on the subject.

Thus, the question of Parliamentary sovereignty appears to remain unresolved. Parliament has not passed any Act defining its own sovereignty. The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 states "It is recognised that the Parliament of the United Kingdom is sovereign" without qualification or definition. A related possible limitation on Parliament relates to the Scottish legal system and Presbyterian faith, preservation of which were Scottish preconditions to the creation of the unified Parliament. Since the Parliament of the United Kingdom was set up in reliance on these promises, it may be that it has no power to make laws that break them.

Parliament's power has often been limited by its own Acts, whilst retaining the power to overturn those decisions should it decide to.

Acts passed in 1921 and 1925 granted the Church of Scotland complete independence in ecclesiastical matters. From 1973 to 2020, under membership of the European Community and European Union, parliament agreed to the position that European law would apply and be enforceable in Britain and that Britain would be subject to the rulings of the European Court of Justice. In the Factortame case, the European Court of Justice ruled that British courts could have powers to overturn British legislation that was not compatible with European law. This position ended with the passing of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 and Britain leaving the EU on 31 January 2020.

Parliament has also created national devolved parliaments and an assembly with differing degrees of legislative authority in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not in England, which continues to be governed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Parliament still has the power over areas for which responsibility lies with the devolved institutions, but would ordinarily gain the agreement of those institutions to act on their behalf. Similarly, it has granted the power to make regulations to Ministers of the Crown, and the power to enact religious legislation to the General Synod of the Church of England. (Measures of the General Synod and, in some cases proposed statutory instruments made by ministers, must be approved by both Houses before they become law.)

In every case aforementioned, authority has been conceded by Act of Parliament and may be taken back in the same manner. It is entirely within the authority of Parliament, for example, to abolish the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, or—as happened in 2020—to leave the EU. However, Parliament also revoked its legislative competence over Australia and Canada with the Australia and Canada Acts: although the Parliament of the United Kingdom could pass an Act reversing its action, it would not take effect in Australia or Canada as the competence of the Imperial Parliament is no longer recognised there in law.

One well-recognised consequence of Parliament's sovereignty is that it cannot bind future Parliaments; that is, no Act of Parliament may be made secure from amendment or repeal by a future Parliament. For example, although the Act of Union 1800 states that the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland are to be united "forever", Parliament permitted southern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom in 1922.

Privileges

Each House of Parliament possesses and guards various ancient privileges. The House of Lords relies on inherent right. In the case of the House of Commons, the Speaker goes to the Lords' Chamber at the beginning of each new Parliament and requests representatives of the Sovereign to confirm the Lower House's "undoubted" privileges and rights. The ceremony observed by the House of Commons dates to the reign of King Henry VIII. Each House is the guardian of its privileges, and may punish breaches thereof. The extent of parliamentary privilege is based on law and custom. Sir William Blackstone states that these privileges are "very large and indefinite", and cannot be defined except by the Houses of Parliament themselves.

The foremost privilege claimed by both Houses is that of freedom of speech in debate; nothing said in either House may be questioned in any court or other institution outside Parliament. Another privilege claimed is that of freedom from arrest; at one time this was held to apply for any arrest except for high treason, felony or breach of the peace but it now excludes any arrest on criminal charges; it applies during a session of Parliament, and 40 days before or after such a session. Members of both Houses are no longer privileged from service on juries.

Both Houses possess the power to punish breaches of their privilege. Contempt of Parliament—for example, disobedience of a subpoena issued by a committee—may also be punished. The House of Lords may imprison an individual for any fixed period of time, but an individual imprisoned by the House of Commons is set free upon prorogation. The punishments imposed by either House may not be challenged in any court, and the Human Rights Act does not apply.

Until at least 2015, members of the House of Commons also had the privilege of a separate seating area in the Palace of Westminster canteen, protected by a false partition labelled "MPs only beyond this point", so that they did not have to sit with canteen staff who were taking a break. This provoked mockery from a newly elected 20-year-old MP who described it as "ridiculous" snobbery.

Emblem

thumb|Beaufort Portcullis badge of the Tudors

The badge of Parliament is a crowned portcullis, and was officially granted by the Queen in 1996. The portcullis was originally the badge of various English noble families from the 14th century. It went on to be adopted by the kings of the Tudor dynasty in the 16th century, under whom the Palace of Westminster became the regular meeting place of Parliament. The crown was added to make the badge a specifically royal symbol.

The portcullis probably first came to be associated with the Palace of Westminster through its use as decoration in the rebuilding of the Palace after the fire of 1512. However, at the time it was only one of many symbols. The widespread use of the portcullis throughout the Palace dates from the 19th century, when Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin used it extensively as a decorative feature in their designs for the new Palace built following the disastrous 1834 fire.

The crowned portcullis came to be accepted during the early 20th century as the emblem of both houses of parliament. This was simply a result of custom and usage rather than a specific decision. The emblem now appears on all official stationery, publications and papers, and is stamped on various items in use in the Palace of Westminster, such as cutlery, silverware and china. Various shades of red (for the House of Lords) and green (for the House of Commons) are used for visual identification of the houses.

The Parliamentary Press Gallery

In May 1803, the Commons Speaker Abbot ruled that part of the Public Gallery would be reserved in future for the Press.

In the 1870s, a list was drawn up of parliamentary reporters who were permitted in the Members' Lobby.

Broadcast media

All public events are broadcast live and on-demand via parliamentlive.tv, which maintains an archive dating back to 4 December 2007. There is also a related official YouTube channel. They are also broadcast live by the independent Euronews English channel. In the UK the BBC has its own dedicated parliament channel, BBC Parliament, which broadcasts 24 hours a day and is also available on BBC iPlayer. It shows live coverage from the House of Commons, House of Lords, the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Senedd.

Notes

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

Public Policy Hub – Parliament and law making
Hansard from 1803 to 2005
Parliament Live TV
"A–Z of Parliament" – The British Broadcasting Corporation (2005).
Topic: Politics – The Guardian
Topic: House of Lords – The Guardian
Parliamentary procedure site at Leeds University
British House of Commons people (C-SPAN)