There are certain factors that hinders parliament from successfully performing its representative functions, such as its lack of representation of UK society. Only 4% of MPs elected in 2010 are ethnic minorities even though 10% of the UK population is made up of ethnic minorities. Although it can be argued that this will lead to the needs of a percentage of the population not being met, Parliament does not have to be a mirror image of society in order to represent society effectively. For example, an MP does not have to be an ethnic minority to know and understand that racism should not be acceptable.
Parliament is also prevented from performing its representative functions because MPs are usually compelled to vote for legislations in favour of their parties due to the use of Party Whips. The role of an MP is to vote for legislations in the best interests of the nations, but also their constituency and they are also expected to support their party manifesto.
A third hindrance to Parliament successfully performing its representative functions is the use of 2 chambers. This is because it leads to constant time wasting. Having two chambers prolongs the process of passing laws. For example, the debate for the Fox Hunting Act 2004, which was by the way not representative of UK society, had started in 1949 but it had never been passed due to various amendments which were being made by both the House of Lords and House of Commons. That meant that Parliament had spent 53 years arguing over wildlife. This time could have been spent making deliberations on health or education reforms, considering the fact that one of the major roles of parliament, the House of Commons to be more specific, is the raising and spending of money. You could argue that this doesn’t apply to all cases though, e.g. in 2010 the House of Lords approved the Commons’ proposal to increase tuition fees within 6 days of the bill being passed in the House of Commons. Some might argue that this proves that Parliament does not reflect the lower class in Britain because majority of MPs and Peers are from upper-middle class families who will not be affected greatly by the increment. On the other hand, others might argue that this proves that parliament is successful and efficient in performing its representative functions, because they could promptly pass a bill that could improve the economy.
Parliament cannot always successfully perform its representative functions because of the procedure required in passing legislature. There are 2 types of bills that can be passed, Private bills and public bills. Public bills are bills that can be generalised. These can be introduced by individual MPs/Lords (Private Members Bills) or they can be proposed by government ministers. Private Members Bills are the most representative of individuals, or constituents. These tend to be proposed on Friday evenings by backbench and crossbench MPs. They are usually proposed through 10 minute bills and they undergo the same scrutiny as public bills, provided they get past the first reading. Private Member Bills don’t tend to be passed due to the constraint of time and audience faced by the individual proposing the bill. This reduces the likelihood of a bill which could favour a constituency from being passed or even heard. Although this usually reduces the likelihood of bills being passed, the smaller number of MPs who are present during the 10 minute bill reduces the amount of scrutiny which the bill undergoes and this sometimes increases the chances of a bill being passed.
To conclude I think that the UK parliament does successfully perform its representative functions in modern Britain but it only does this to an extent due to certain hindrances. E.g. the House of Lords holds a significant role in the running of Parliament, even though it’s an unelected branch of the legislature. This means that it cannot be held accountable. This lack of accountability means that Peers are not obliged to represent society. The two Houses of Parliament do work hand in hand to ensure that they do perform their representative roles as best as possible when necessary e.g. the 2006 Terrorism Act where the House of Lords jointly made amendments to ensure that other branches of the state, namely the judiciary, could interpret and enforce the law as efficiently as possible.
by
tundeosun (student)
