Indeed legislation has a very important part in both Houses of Parliament. It is not expected that the Commons should defeat or challenge legislation proposed by the Government, especially if the Government has a mandate. This is also true of the Lords, in fact, according to the unwritten Salisbury Convention it is actually forbidden. However the Government can be warned that proposed laws may be unpopular. The Commons may also amend legislation according to errors or discrimination against minorities. Amendments to legislation are also common in the House of Lords as this is their primary power against any laws that they might disagree with. Nevertheless this may only be done with the approval of the Commons and so still remains limited. In both houses a private member’s bill is a common way of suggesting a new law that does not relate to the mandate of the Government. In both houses these laws are possible but rare due to large opposition and a perceived view of unimportance.
Although scrutiny is a very important part of the House of Lords, it is more formal in the House of Commons in the form of question time, select and standing committees. The use of these is an essential way of checking how the Government is operating according to the public’s interest. However scrutiny in the Lords is very limited. Through the use of its own select committees the EU has become an important role that the Government tend to overlook. In this way many committees have become a prestigious asset to the Lords. Scrutiny may however, become more important as stated above in the introduction of new Laws here, constitutional committees become very important to ensure that the Government stays within its bounds of the constitution.
In the Commons the Government as a whole and individual members must account to the Commons for what they are doing. They must justify their decisions, face criticism and must also answer parliamentary questions on policy or decisions. In extreme cases the Commons has the right to ask for the resignation of the MP or even the Government if it believes that they are not accountable for their actions. The house of Lords however is not affected by accountability (due to the fact that they are appointed into Parliament), with the exception of the Lord Chancellor who is the link between the Lords and the Commons.
Finally it must be stated that one main difference between the Commons and Lords occurs because the Lords is the Highest Court of appeal in the country with powers of punishment that the Commons does not have. In this sense another difference occurs as the Lords is also responsible to ensure that the Commons is accountable to the constitution. They must ensure that Parliament does not exceed its term of five years and they also make sure that the Government and the Prime Minister does not exceed its powers.
These are the main differences between the Houses of Commons and Lords however this can be concluded by the main fact that the Commons is a more powerful chamber simply because it is elected and the House of Lords is not.
