Normal daily timetable of the House of Commons

1.1 pm The Speaker arrives in the chamber after a procession from the Speaker’s House via the Lower Waiting Hall and Central Lobby. The Speaker’s Chaplain leads the House in prayers.

2.35-3.30 pm Questions to ministers (based on a rota of departments)

(3.00-3.30 pm Wednesdays: questions to the Prime Minister)

3.30 pm Private Notice (emergency) questions to ministers, statements by ministers and points of order to the Spaker.

3.30 pm (or later) Main business of the day begins.

10 pm (or later). Other items.

Last half-hour of sitting. Adjournment debate on a subject chosen by a backbencher.

The average length of a daily sitting is currently 9 hours 15 minutes.

On Thursdays, all timings are 3 hours earlier.

On Fridays the House meets at 9.30 am, does not usually take questions to ministers, and is likely to adjournat 3 pm or shortly after.

The House of Lords

The 1,200 members of the House of Lordsare not elected. The House of Lords is made up of hereditary peers, twenty six archbishops and bishops, very senior judges, and others who have been made life peers. Life peers are people who have been made lords because of service they have given to the community, often in the political field, but also in other areas, such as industry or entertainment.

Like the House of Commons, the House of Lords holds general debates, puts questions to ministers (of whom about twenty are members of the House) and considers legislation. Its procedure and practices differ in detail from those of the Commons, and its powers over legislation are quailified: the Lords may not amend‘money bills, and they can only delay other bills passed by the Commons for an effective period of thirteen months.

Originally on very rare occasions, people who had been convicted of criminl offences could appeal to the House of Lords, and their case was heard by five of the Law Lords.

So, the House of Lords also had a judicial function as the final Court of Appeal for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and, in civil matters only, for Scotland, Such business is conducted by the Lords of Appeal, who include senior judges specially appointed to the Lords. In 2008 the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords was replaced by a new Supreme Court under the Constitutional Reform Act o2005 and ultimately has its olwn building away from the House of Lords.

The House is presided over by the Lord Speaker who is "appointed" by the members of the House of Lords and is expected to be politically impartial.

Under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 the position of the Speaker of the House of Lords (as it is termed in the Act) became a separate office, allowing the position to be held by someone other than the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor continued to act as speaker of the House of Lords in an interim period after the Act was passed, while the House of Lords considered new arrangements about its speakership. The Lord Chancellor sat on the woolsack in front of the throne. The other peers sat on the red padded benches, with the Government party sitting on the throne’s right hand. The cross-benches were at the end of the chamber, in front of the Bar of the House where the Speaker and MPs stood at the State Opening, and from where barristers made their speeches when the chamber was used for judicial sittings. Behind it lay the archway leading to the Peers Lobby.

The area of the palace occupied by the House of Lords includes committee rooms, libraries, dining rooms and offices. Many of these rooms have been altered little since their completion, and are furnished with over 1,100 pieces of original furniture.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 964