The Opposition :

The opposition comprises all those political parties, which, as a result of the last general election, did not become part of the government. The largest opposition party becomes the official opposition.

The formal role of any opposition party is to hold the government to account for its actions and, because of political rivalry, the business of government scrutiny is taken very seriously. The ability to closely monitor government activity and expose any failures or shortcomings could lead to a change of government at the next general election.

There are several ways in which the opposition can keep a check on government through Parliament:

Questions

There are 2 types of questions a Member of Parliament can ask the Government:

• oral questions

• written questions

Questions are answered by government ministers or the prime minister. The remit of each government department is very large, so to make the task of running them more manageable, the prime minister will split responsibility for each department between a number of ministers. Each minister is allocated a portfolio and will answer questions in the chamber according to that area of responsibility. Questions concerning important matters or overall accountability and responsibility are answered by the secretary of state, the most senior minister and a member of the cabinet. An hour is allotted for questions to government departments on a rotational basis on every day that Parliament sits, so that all departments are questioned approximately once every 3 weeks.

The popular prime minister’s question time takes place every Wednesday at noon, for half an hour. This means that, proportionately, the prime minister answers questions about his government’s activity for twice as long as his fellow members of government. This is only right given that there are certain areas, such as national security, for which only he can be questioned, and because after all it is the prime minister who is ultimately responsible for overseeing all government departments and running the country.

Oral Questions

With 659 MPs, there are usually quite a few members wishing to ask ministers questions when their department comes up for scrutiny. To sort out who gets to ask a question and in what order, a ballot takes place a few days before the tabling deadline and 25 names are selected. The minister answers questions in the House in the same order as the questions themselves have been taken out of the ballot box and, as time is limited, picking order is thus very important (questions pulled out last generally aren’t answered in the chamber).

Oral questions are usually rather general, such as asking the minister to make a statement on a particular topic. After the statement, the MP has the opportunity to ask a follow-up or ‘supplementary’ question, which will be much more pointed and critical (although the rules are that it must remain within the remit laid down by the question on the order paper).

Although the minister has knowledge of the oral question prior to question time, he will not know what the supplementary is. Follow-up questions are therefore essential for putting the minister ‘on the spot’. When preparing ministerial briefing, civil servants will use the oral question, as well as the MP’s particular interests, to advise the minister as to a likely supplementary question.

Other MPs are then able to intervene and ask further ‘supplementaries’ on the subject of the preceding oral question. It is up to the Speaker to chair the debate so as to strike the right balance between the two types of questioning: an abundance of supplementaries puts the minister under close scrutiny but allows for fewer areas to be scrutinised, whilst more oral questions cover more areas of the department’s activity, but let the minister get away relatively unscathed.

If time constraints prevent a question being answered orally, the member concerned receives a written reply to their question within 3 days, although they will not have the opportunity to ask a supplementary question. Being amongst the first MP to ask an oral question therefore really matters.

Written Questions

A written question is usually more focused than an oral one, mainly because there are no supplementaries on written questions. In a way written questions are less about political point scoring and more about obtaining detailed information for a campaign, a constituent or about a particular area of interest. There is also no limit to the number of written questions that a member can table each day, whereas the number of orals is limited to one per round of questions.

Debates

There are 3 main types of debates that take place in the chamber and members from all sides of the House can take part in these debates:

• Legislative debates

• Adjournment debates

• Opposition day debates

Members from all sides of the House can take part in these debates, irrespective of who calls for them.

Legislative debates
Legislative debates take place around proposed legislation or ‘bills’ when they have been introduced to Parliament and before they become law. Opposition parties, as well as backbenchers from the governing party, will take part in lengthy debates to make sure that the proposed legislation will protect and serve all individuals without discrimination. The main legislative debates take place during the second reading of a bill, which is the time for political, ethical and sometimes philosophical point-making, focussing on the broad concepts and implications of the bill, rather than legal technicalities (which takes place at a later stage).

Adjournment debates
As time in the House of Commons is tight, adjournment debates are designed to give backbenchers and opposition parties more time to debate issues that would not otherwise be debated in the chamber’s busy schedule. MPs can raise any issue relating to their constituency, an area of public concern or a private interest during these debates.

Adjournment debates either take place in the chamber itself, when the House has ‘adjourned’ (and hence their name), or during the day in a smaller surrogate chamber just off the historic Westminster Hall, also called ‘Westminster Hall’. The debate is chaired by a deputy speaker and attended by any other MP who has an interest in the subject. The relevant minister will also attend and give an official government response to the issues raised, at the end of the debate.

Adjournment debates are an excellent way of attracting attention to issues that do not feature in the government’s frontline political agenda and for raising the media profile of a particular issue.

Opposition day debates
In addition to the normal business in the chamber, opposition parties are allocated 20 days a year when they can debate any subject of their choosing, although the focus is usually on topical issues of the day. Seventeen of these days are reserved for the official opposition, and the remaining three are for the other opposition parties. As, therefore, this means that very little time is allotted to the smaller parties, the government sometimes unofficially grants them more debate days. It does this by adding to the total quota of opposition day debates or by giving the smaller parties days allocated to the official opposition.

The topics chosen for opposition day debates are party political and provide excellent opportunities for opposition parties to expose flaws in government policy. The opposition parties can also highlight how, if they were in power, they would tackle the problem under discussion.

Select Committees

Transparency

When the government publishes new policy, proposals for new legislation, or a response to a significant event, a minister (or the prime minister) makes a statement in the House. These statements are either oral or written and can be made simultaneously in both Houses. Parliamentary convention is that Parliament should be the first body to hear of an important announcement (before the media or anyone else).

Although this does not strictly correspond to parliamentary scrutiny, it represents an effort by the government to be transparent about its forthcoming actions and plans.

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