Category Archives: Parliament

What is a ‘confidence and supply agreement’?

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Arlene Foster and Theresa May entered a Confidence and Supply Agreement in 2017.

A Government is formed in the UK when the King invites a member of the House of Commons to form one. It is by convention that a Prime Minister comes from the House of Commons and is the leader of the largest party in the House. This is because as Prime Minister they need to be directly accountable to the people’s elected representatives. As such, the last Prime Minister to govern from the House of Lords was the Marquess of Salisbury in 1902. It is normally pretty clear cut who is to become Prime Minister. However, what happens if that is not the case and why might a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement become necessary?

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Why was Miller vs Prime Minister so significant?

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The UK Supreme Court was created under the Constitutional Reform Act (2005).

Since its inception after the Constitutional Reform Act (2005) a number of extremely significant judicial review cases have ended up in the UK Supreme Court, the final court of appeal in the UK. Arguably, none are as significant as Miller vs. Prime Minister in 2019. So, what was this case about and why was it so constitutionally significant?

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Primary Legislation, Secondary Legislation, Statutory Instruments and Orders-in-Council. What are they and what is the difference between them?

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Primary Legislation, Secondary Legislation and Statutory Instruments are all mechanisms through which law is enacted in the UK. In fact, primary legislation (that which follows the stages of a bill through both Houses) is rather rare. There would simply not be enough time to pass all law in this way. Indeed, this is borne out by the numbers.

For example, in the 2017-2019 parliamentary session there were 70 Acts of Parliament passed. However, in just 2018 alone, 1387 statutory instruments (secondary legislation) were enacted. It is clear that most law in the UK is not made by Parliament directly. So, given this, what are the different ways in which law is enacted in the UK?

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