“House of Commons”/ privileges to members of House of Commons/ committees of House of Commons./House of Commons Functions in British Parliament LLB Notes

 “House of Commons”/  privileges to members of House of Commons/ committees of House of Commons./House of Commons Functions in British Parliament;-

Introduction: - 

           The Parliament of England is called the mother of all other Parliaments in the world. When we speak of the British Parliament, we mean the House of Common. The House of Commons is the lower chamber of the British Parliament. It is known as the popular chamber also. It is more powerful and influential than the House of Lords or the upper chamber. For all practical purposes the House of Commons is the British Parliament.


In the words of Walpole, “when a minister consults parliament, he infect consults the House of Commons; when the Queen dissolves Parliament she dissolves the House of Commons. In other words a new Parliament is simply a new “House of Commons”.

Composition: -

            At present the House of Commons consists of 650 members. There are 533 member of England, 59 for Scotland, 40 for Wales and 18 for Northern Ireland.

Qualification of Members:- 

  Following are the qualification required for a person to become a member of House of Common: -

a.         The person must be 25 Year old.

b.         He must not be a bank corrupt.

c.         He must not be an Insane person.

d.         Clergymen, civil servant, members of the regular armed forces, police men, judicial officers and members of House of Lord are disqualified from being member of House of Commons.

House of Commons a popularly elected legislative chamber: -

      House of Commons is elected by the people directly. But in history the story is quite different from present situation. In medieval days when the foundation of House of Commons was laid, the house was represented by the land lords, merchants, guildsmen etc. It was a functional representation and not territorial representation. It continued to be so till 1932. The change came with the extension of parliamentary franchise (Authorization, License) through the reforms (Improvements) Acts of 1832, 67, 84, 1918, and 1928. Women were grated the right to vote for the first time in 1918. In 1928 men and women were grated the right to vote on equal terms.

Term of the House of Common: -

     The term of the House of Commons was three years up to 1716, from then upto 1911 it was seven years the Parliament Act of 1911 fixed it at five years.

The Officers of the House of Commons:-

     Following are the officers of House of Commons which performs their specific duties:-

1)Speaker;-

          At one time the Speaker used to be the kings nominee but now it is the House which elects its speaker although sovereign still approves of speaker’s election formally.

2) The Chairman of the Committee of ways and means  ;-

        He has three main functions:-

            (1)        To act as Deputy to the Speaker.

            (2)        To Preside Over the Committee of the Whole House.

            (3)        To supervise all private business. There is also Deputy Chairman.

3)The Sergeant of Arms ;-

          He is appointed by crown to attend upon the speaker to enforce the order of the House and to execute warrants issued by the crown to assist the speaker

4)Clerk of the House;-

    He is appointed by the crown to assist the speaker.

5)Chaplan;-

 He is appointed by the speaker to conduct prayers at the beginning of each session.

Committees of the House of Commons;-

        There are five different types of committees in the House of Commons:-

a.         Committee of the whole House.

b.         Select Committee.

c.         Standing Committee

d.         Private Bills Committees

e.         Joint Committees

Privileges of Members;-

          These are those rights without which the members cannot discharge their function. The members enjoy freedom of speech in the House and such freedom is absolute. The house can punish its own member and outsider for contempt (disrespect) of House.

Power and Functions of the House of Commons;-

      Power and Function of the House of Commons is listed below:-

1) The House as a Legislature: -

           All bills to become Acts of Parliament must be passed by the House of Commons. In actual practice the House of commons has lost its law making power to the cabinet.

2) The House as Controller of National Purse (Prize): -

              The powers of the House of Commons over national income and expenditure are absolute. The Parliament Act of 1911 rendered the House of Lords totally powerless in this regard.

3)The House as the Maker of the Government: -

      The principle function of the House of Commons is to make to support and vote out Governments. As we can say House of Commons at any moment it can choose a ruler as well as dismiss a ruler.

The Existing Role of the House:-

     Existing Role of the House is reflected below:-

1) Function of Supporting the Government: -

         An important function of the House of Commons these days is to provide necessary support to the government to enable to carry through its program in the parliament. This function is performed by the majority party in the House because the government belongs to this party.

2)The Function of Criticism: -  

        Another function of the Commons is to criticize the government. The opposition party or parties perform the function. The question hour is another device to bring to light failures of government in specific spheres (Areas) of activity.

3)Function of Education: -

         The House of Commons though a wide publicity of its debates in press and on radio and television spreads political education among the people.

4) Debating Issues of Political Importance: -

             The most important function of the Parliament is the debating of various bills and resolutions that are placed before it for approval.

5) Amendment of the Constitution: - 

           The House of Commons is fully authorized to amend any provision of the constitution by simple majority whenever it likes.

6) Redress of Public Grievances (Complaints):-

          The House of Commons is also regarded as the final authority to provide relief to the people when they suffer any difficulty or meet injustice from the hands of government official. An hour is fixed for asking questions on each day, the house meets.

Conclusion;-

      At the end we can say that in theory House of Commons is expected to perform the functions mentioned above. But in practices the Cabinet has now become the master of the house of commons. The 20th Century has witnessed the rise of Cabinet dictatorship. More than 90 percent of the bills are moved by the ministers and these are passed as the cabinet desires.