Parliament is the supreme legislature of Great Britain. Parliament originated under the Norman kings as the Great Council of royal tenants-in- chief, to which in the 13th century, representatives of the shires were sometimes summoned. De Montfort's parliament of 1265 set a precedent by including representatives of the boroughs as well as the shires, which was followed by Edward I from 1275 onwards. Under Edward III the burgesses and knights of the shires began to meet separately from the barons, thus forming the House of Commons. By the 15th century parliament had acquired the right to legislate, vote and appropriate supplies, examine public accounts, and impeach royal ministers. The powers of parliament were much diminished under the Yorkists and Tudors, but under Elizabeth I a new spirit of independence appeared. The revolutions of 1640 and 1688 established parliamentary control over the executive and the judiciary and finally abolished all royal claim to tax or legislate without parliamentary consent. During these struggles
the two great parties emerged, and after 1688 it became customary for the king to choose his ministers from the party dominant in the Commons.
The English parliament was united with the Scottish in 1707, and with the Irish during' the period 1801 to 1922. The franchise was extended to the middle classes in 1832, to the urban working classes in 1867, to agricultural labourers in 1884, and to women in 1918 and 1928. Payment of members was introduced in 1911. The duration of parliaments was fixed at three years in 1694, at seven in 1716, and at five in 1911, but any parliament may extend its own life, as happened during both world wars. Constituencies are kept under continuous review by the parliamentary Boundary Commissions.
There are 630 members of parliament. The House of Lords comprises the temporal peers, i.e. all hereditary peers of England (created to 1707), all hereditary peers of Great Britain (created between 1707 and 1800), and all hereditary peers of the U.K. created from 1801 onward; all hereditary Scottish peers under the Peerage Act of 1963); all peeresses In their own right (under the same act); all life peers (both the Law Lords and those created under the Life Peerages Act of 1958); and the spiritual peers - the 2 archbishops and twenty four of the bishops (London, Durham and Winchester by right, and the rest by date). Since the parliament Act of 1911 the powers of the Lords have been restricted, in that they may delay a bill passed by the Commons for a limited period but not reject it. Under the parliament Bill of 1968 introduced by Harold Wilson a two-tier system of voting and non-voting peers would have been established, salaried, voting members being those 150 life peers able to attend regularly, supplemented by about 80 newly-created life peers chosen chiefly from existing hereditary peers: the government would have been entitled to a 10% majority. The measure gave way to an industrial relations bill. The Lords are presided over by the Lord Chancellor, and the Commons by the Speaker. A public bill is given a preliminary first reading and discussed in detail at the second reading; it is then referred to a standing committee, after which it is considered by a committee of the whole House. After the third reading it is sent to the Lords, whose procedure is similar. If it passes both houses, it receives the royal assent and so becomes law. Research Parliament
Abbreviations
General Information
Research Parliament