Parliament

This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared to mark the 100th anniversary of the Government of India Act 1919 receiving royal assent and the role of the peer of non-European descent, Lord Sinha, in piloting the Act through the Lords.

This House of Lords Library Briefing provides background information on the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999.

This House of Lords Library Briefing provides information on the Northern Ireland Budget Bill in advance of its second reading and remaining stages, due to take place in the House of Lords on 31 October 2019. It also identifies relevant reports and useful documents, including parliamentary materials and press articles, which may be of assistance to Members in preparing for that debate.

This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared ahead of the second reading in the House of Lords of the Early Parliamentary General Election Bill scheduled to take place on 30 October 2019. The remaining stages of the bill are also due to take place on 30 October if the House agrees to a government motion to dispense with the standing order that would normally prevent more than one bill stage taking place on the same day.

This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared ahead of the Saturday 19 October 2019 sitting in the House of Lords to debate the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

Prorogation is the mechanism by which parliamentary sessions are ended. This House of Lords Library briefing sets out the start and end dates of each parliamentary session since 1900, together with the number of calendar days between the end of the previous session and the start of the new one.

This House of Lords Library Briefing considers committees in the House of Lords which deal with public matters.

This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared in advance of the debate scheduled to take place in the House of Lords on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on 2 October 2019. The briefing summarises key Brexit-related events since June 2016, outlines the positions of the main political parties, and provides suggestions for further reading.

This House of Lords Library briefing provides a list of the mover and seconder following each Queen’s Speech since 1997, along with each Member’s party affiliation at the time.

This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared in advance of the second reading of the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Bill in the House of Lords on 5 September 2019. The Briefing sets out the main points of the Bill and summarises its passage through the House of Commons.

This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared in advance of the debate due to take place in the House of Lords on 9 September 2019 that “this House takes note of the recent work of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament”.

This House of Lords Library Briefing is the result of an initiative by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology to foster collaborative work between academics and Parliament. As part of this scheme, the House of Lords Library hosted Dr Ruth Dixon of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, to explore the impact of the House of Lords, focusing on the chamber’s legislative role. In this briefing, Dr Dixon describes how she used her novel methodology to analyse amendments to government legislation in the most recent completed parliamentary session, 2016–17. This analysis is followed by two case studies which explore interactions between the Government and legislators during the same session. The first outlines the response of Parliament in April 2017 to the unexpected announcement of a general election. The second analyses the fate of part of the Children and Social Work Act 2017: clauses that were intended to allow local authorities to apply to be exempted from statutory provisions in children’s social care. Overall Dr Dixon concludes that the impact of the House of Lords is relatively subtle. In order to influence policy through legislation, Members must not only gather cross-party support within the chamber, they must also gain the support of the Commons. Her analysis shows various ways in which this is achieved.

This House of Lords Library Briefing contains background reading in preparation for the second reading of the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Bill on 8 July 2019.

This House of Lords Library Briefing Pack contains a selection of material relevant for the forthcoming debate on appointing a joint committee of both Houses on the costs and implications for the UK of leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement on 31 October 2019.

This House of Lords Library Briefing has been prepared in advance of the debate due to take place on 20 June 2019. Lord Bird (Crossbench) is to move that “this House takes note of the case for better protecting and representing the interests of future generations in policymaking”.