Another way in which the House of Commons can control the power of Government is by calling a no confidence vote in Government and dismissing the Government. By allowing this option to be available, it means that if the House of Commons feels that Government is no longer doing its job and is not running the country properly, then it can be forced out as every MP decides whether or not it has confidence in the Government, and if a majority agrees it is right the dismiss them then they will immediately be dismissed. This shows that Government are never safe, as in the most extreme circumstances they can be ousted immediately for running the country badly, which happened in Italy in 2011 but has not happened in the UK since 1979.
A third way in which the House of Commons can control the power of Government is by calling in legislative committees to examine proposed legislation. These start by the committees looking at the Green paper, where MPs and pressure groups look at the legislation then adapt what they think needs to be changed in it. After this it goes through stages where it is then debated whether or not it will be made into a law, before a final decision is made with adaptations made. This shows that the House of Commons can control the power of Government as the MPs can propose amendments to legislation before it is made final, therefore meaning that it is not just the party in power who make all the final decisions.
Finally, debating is a way in which the House of Commons can control the power of Government. This is effectively a slagging match between the opposition and the party in power, with the opposition trying to undermine what the power party want to do. This can sway how some MPs feel about certain things, such as Europe, and can lead to them to go against their own party and vote with the opposition, for example the referendum which the opposition proposed over Europe, which had a record breaking number of MPs going against their party to get the referendum through. Without these debates this would not be possible as the party in power would not want to do these things, therefore showing how the House of Commons can control the power of Government.
- One way in which the House of commons is effective in carrying out its functions is the regular basis with which the Ministers are held to account. This is therefore effective as it means that means that the Commons is controlling parliament, as the work of the ministers in the different sections is constantly being questioned. This means that they have to fully explain and justify their decisions regularly which then therefore prevents the ministers passing a law or proposing a law without the whole of the House of commons know, not just the party in power, meaning it can be altered to suit the representation of the commons.
As well as this, there is deep scrutiny into legislature. This means that every law which is wanted to be passed by the party/coalition in power then there a many standard procedures to go through before it is possible. This starts with the green paper, which is the statement of intent. This then goes onto white paper, which is the first draft of the bill, which is then followed by the first and second reading in parliament, which decide wthether or not the bill will be passed which Is then followed by a debate which can amend the bill. It is then passed onto the standing committee, which scrutinize the bill point by point to make sure it isn’t going to affect Human rights etc. They then right a report on the bill with amendments, which they then pass to the commons to have a final reading where they vote whether to pass the bill with these amendments. But the disadvantage to this deep scrutiny is that the Government controls the amount of time allocated to pass a bill, meaning that many fail due to a lack of time set by the executive for these bills. This then means despite the deep scrutiny that can make the commons effective in this function, it can also be ineffective as it does not always have enough time to pass these bills through.
The legislative committees, which scrutinize these laws, are also relatively weak. This is due to the fact they are subject to whipping, by their parties, which means they cannot bring in their own political views to the laws as the whips of their party control their thinking ways and make them stick along the lines of their party manifesto. Therefore even if a conservative MP wanted to pass a law on Europe, as they have the majority in the committee, the whips would prevent them from doing this as it is against the political views of the Conservatives.
Finally, the House of Commons is still socially and politically unrepresentative. It is still mainly white men, with ethnic minorities such as blacks and Asians being very rare In the commons. This means that the views of these people aren’t being seen in the commons, meaning that it is not fully democratic as it is not the views of the people, it’s the views of a minority. As a result of this these people are unlikely to vote, which means a decrease in the participation figures in the general elections.
