AskBiography Logo   Latest News  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Google Buzz  Became Fan - Facebook  Subscribe to RSSRSS   Bookmark and Share

House of Commons of the United Kingdom

Background Color#006400
Text Color#FFFFFF
NameThe Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled
Coa PicCrowned Portcullis.svg
Coa Res110px
Session RoomHouse of Commons.jpg
House TypeLower House
BodyParliament of the United Kingdom
Leader1 TypeSpeaker
Leader1John Bercow
Election122 June 2009
Next Election15 May 2015
Leader2 TypeLeader
Leader2Sir George Young
Party2(Conservative)
Election26 May 2010
Leader3 TypeShadow Leader
Leader3Hillary Benn
Party3(Labour)
Election38 October 2010
Members650
Structure1UK Commons Current Composition.svg
Structure1 Res250px
Political Groups1HM Government
  Conservative Party (306)
  Liberal Democrats (57)
HM Most Loyal Opposition
 Labour Party (257)
Other Opposition
  Democratic Unionist Party (8)
  Scottish National Party (6)
  Sinn Féin (5, Abstentionist)
  Plaid Cymru (3)
  Social Democratic and Labour Party (3)
  Green Party of England and Wales (1)
  Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (1)
{{colorbox| }} Independents (Lady Sylvia Hermon, Denis MacShane) (2)
Speaker
  Speaker (1)
Last Election16 May 2010
Next Election1no later than 11 June 2015
Meeting PlaceHouse of Commons chamber
Palace of Westminster
Westminster
London
United Kingdom

     Home | Legislature | House of Commons of the United Kingdom



The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords (the upper house). Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members (since 2010 General Election), who are known as Members of Parliament (MPs). Members are elected through the first-past-the-post system by electoral districts known as constituencies. They hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved (a maximum of five years after the preceding election).

A House of Commons of England evolved at some point in England during the 14th century and, in practice, has been in continuous existence since, becoming the House of Commons of Great Britain after the political union with Scotland, and also, during the nineteenth century, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the political union with Ireland, finally reaching its current title after independence was given to the Irish Free State in 1922.

The House of Commons was originally far less powerful than the House of Lords, but today its legislative powers greatly exceed those of the Lords. Under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords' power to reject most legislative bills was reduced to a delaying power. Moreover, the Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons; the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains its support. Almost all government ministers are drawn from the House of Commons and, with one brief exception, all prime ministers since 1902.

The full, formal style and title of the House of Commons is The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.


Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/House/of/Commons/of/the/United/Kingdom?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 410 Gone in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/House/of/Commons/of/the/United/Kingdom?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10" in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Fatal error: Call to a member function children() on a non-object in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 260