Ahead of the elections - How does government work?
Part 2 of my short guide to the mechanics of political power in the UK
It was not much more than a year ago that I wrote Ahead of the elections - How does local government work? We were about to head to the polls, and next week it’s all happening again. On the eve of what is widely expected to be a historic election, I thought I’d take a break from my usual critical slant and write another explainer. This time, on how central government works. With a little local government thrown in. I suppose there is another reason for doing this, beyond wanting to inform my readers (and myself!). While I have a lot of sympathy for oppositional voices in UK political debate, I do think there is much to be gained from understanding how decisions are actually made. It’s one thing demanding change. But how does it happen? What are the mechanics of making policy decisions and getting them implemented?
If you want a real back-to-basics guide, a good place to start is the government’s own website. How government works starts at the top, telling us ‘who runs government’. As you might expect, it’s the Prime Minister, as the leader of government who is ultimately responsible for making decisions. As well as being the principal representative of government in parliament, and appointing members of government, he also ‘oversees’ the civil service and various government agencies. The most senior members of government form the Cabinet - including Secretaries of State for each department and other ministers.
These are selected by the prime minister, and they must be members either of the House of Commons or -less commonly - the House of Lords. During parliament, Cabinet meets weekly to discuss the burning issues or what we used to call matters of state. Currently, or until next week at least, there are 126 ministers. Of these, 23 (plus one - the ‘prime’ minister) are Cabinet ministers. Departments of government, and their agencies, are charged with ‘putting government policy into practice’. That is their function.
There are three types of government departments. Those that operate across the four countries of the UK, those that don’t (with powers devolved to countries’ own administrations e.g., for health, education, culture, environment, transport); and non-ministerial departments, led by civil servants. These tend to have a regulatory role. There are also executive agencies, within departments, that run various services. In addition, we have something called non-departmental public bodies (or NDPBs) - that take on executive or advisory functions, or act as tribunals, or ‘monitoring boards’ with an inspection role.
Rather alarmingly, while there are 44 government departments (over half of which are run by ministers and are, therefore, accountable to us); there are over 400 agencies and public bodies of various kinds about which we know little if anything. That means there are something like ten times as many of these other bodies as there are government departments. Nevertheless, they themselves do a great deal of holding other public bodies to account, as a brief browse through the Single Data List of central government data requirements from local government shows. Local authorities, too, are public bodies created through Acts of Parliament. They spend just under a fifth of all public money and employ an estimated two million people.
So these are the people who, in theory at least, make government work. What about the process of law making? How does that work? I know this takes us beyond government itself, but in a democracy the executive needs a legislature (and a judiciary) to get stuff done. So what are the stages through which legislation must pass? What does parliament do? First, there is draft legislation. There are Green papers that canvas the public for comments; and there are White papers that contain the subsequent outline proposals for new laws. Then we have Bills proposing new laws for consideration by legislators, or changes to current laws. Once parliament has agreed to pass a law, it must be approved by the King for it to become law (and be implemented by the relevant government departments).
Our increasingly complicated relationship with the European Union also has an impact on how decisions are made. While we have regained control over our law making powers, there is also the considerable overhand of a decades-long legacy to deal with. And post-Brexit agreements to grapple with. There are a long list of issues just affecting the relationship between local government and the EU. From border controls and certification for certain goods, the free trade deal, impacts on businesses and individuals, access to public services, issues affecting children’s services, the EU settlement scheme, and points based immigration system; to regulatory services, retained EU law, implications for council workers, for data handling, voting rights, procurement, subsidies and the import and export of waste.
Another useful resource can be found on the Faculty of Law pages of the University of Oxford website. It explains the different types of legislation. Primary legislation consists of Acts of Parliament or Statutes. These are typically Public General Acts, but there are also a handful of Personal or Local Acts that ‘affect a particular locality, person or body’. Also included are Prerogative Orders (as in the Royal Prerogative). These are legislative instruments made by the Crown and Privy Council.
Then there is Secondary legislation. These are the various statutory instruments, such as Codes, Orders, Regulations and Rules. They are usually drafted by departments and - through delegated powers - ‘made' by Ministers. Their role is to ‘bring sections of an Act into force or to vary penalties for offences or to fill out detail in broad provisions of an Act’. They too can be general or local in their application. There is also, finally, what is known as Quasi legislation. This can include things like Circulars, Rule Books and Codes.
Statutes, these written laws passed by legislators, start as Bills. They must pass through both Houses of Parliament. The Commons - even after a period of so-called parliamentary ‘ping-pong’ - ultimately prevails, as the Parliament Act 1949 dictates. In the Commons, there is a First Reading formally presenting the Bill. At Second Reading, MPs debate its purpose. This is followed by Committee Stage at which the Bill is scrutinised ‘clause by clause’. And then Report Stage, where the amended Bill is reviewed and further amendments can be added. Finally, at Third Reading, the amendments are reviewed by the House. The Bill may (or may not) then be permitted to proceed to the other place. Much the same goes for the Lords if the Bill starts in that House. The only difference being, that after Second Reading there is a ‘Committee of the whole House’.
Its actually more complicated than that. For a fuller account, head over to the government’s webpage on Understanding Legislation. It includes more detail on the associated documents that are published with legislation; the establishment of the devolved assemblies and their legislative powers and procedures. And even explains how some Acts are still in force centuries after the demise of the parliaments that passed them. But wouldn’t get too lost in the detail. The most important thing to recognise is that as well as passing laws and setting taxes, the most important role of this ‘mother of parliaments’ (as it sometimes called), is to hold government to account.
How well it does this in practice is, of course, another matter. Which is why we’ll be heading for the polls next week. Happy voting!
Image by Resizia