About Britain's Government

The UK is a constitutional monarchy that is a representative democracy, where Queen Elizabeth II is recognised as the head of state, and where the leader of the majority party, the Prime Minister, currently Gordon Brown, is the head government.

Parliament

Parliament is made up of 3 elements: The Queen, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. They meet together only on occasions of symbolic significance such as the State Opening of Parliament, when the Commons are summoned by the Queen to the House of Lords.

The agreement of all 3 elements is normally required for legislation, but that of the Queen is given as a matter of course.

Houses of Parliament in Evening

House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament. It’s a democratically elected body consisting of 646 members called Members of Parliament (MPs).

Each member is elected by and represents an electoral district of Britain known as a constituency. The Prime Minister is an MP, and part of the House of Commons.

The House of Commons is where the MPs meet to debate Bills and issues affecting the country.

Houses of Parliament exterior

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament, and here members called ‘Lords’ meet to debate, change Bills and scrutinise the work of the Government.

Members of the House of Lords aren’t elected; they either inherit their title or are appointed by the Government or shadow cabinet. The members consist of 2 archbishops and 24 bishops of the Church of England ("Lords Spiritual") and 692 members of the Peerage ("Lords Temporal").

At the moment, the members of the 731 seat House of Lords currently outnumber the members of the 646 seat House of Commons.

Both the House of Lords and the House of Commons are situated in the Houses of Parliament in London’s Westminster.

The main functions of Parliament are:

  • to pass laws;
  • to provide, by voting for taxation, the means of carrying on the work of government;
  • to scrutinise government policy and administration, including proposals for expenditure;
  • to debate the major issues of the day.

Scotland has its own parliament, and Wales an elected Assembly, which sit in Edinburgh and Cardiff respectively. Both Scotland and Wales remain part of the United Kingdom and have continued representation in the Parliament at Westminster in London. 

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