Select committee: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 9
Sixth Report - The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011
Published 15 Sep 2020
Paragraph 63
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The two-thirds ‘super majority’ required to trigger an early election under the Act can, like any statutory provision, be circumvented by passing an Act of Parliament to set an election date. As was made clear to the Committee the option of such a circumvention was clearly always contemplated as a possibility in certain circumstances, such as occurred in Autumn 2019. The principle of parliamentary sovereignty means this will always remain a possibility. Attempting to entrench a ‘super majority’ would be a difficult, unnecessary and The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 33 potentially damaging move; the Committee advises against this being included in any proposals to replace the FtPA.
From: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Sixth Report - The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (HC 167), paragraph 63, 15 September 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 9 December 2020 (deadline 15 November 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it is repealing the Fixed-term Parliaments Act through a draft Bill that revives the prerogative powers over dissolution, and it disagrees with several of the Committee's conclusions, including on the Commons setting election dates.
- On the prerogative, it recognises "a debate" about whether it can be revived without legislation, and the draft Bill makes express provision to revive it. The government agrees that its exercise should not be "abrogated to the Courts", and the draft Bill contains an ouster clause.
- It states that it "does not accept" that the power to set the precise date of the election should be given to the House of Commons or be subject to parliamentary approval.
- It "does not agree" that a residual dissolution power gives the incumbent government an electoral advantage, and it "does not share" the Committee's assessment that the Act is compatible with the confidence principle.
- On review and scrutiny, a Joint Committee has been set up, and the government says it "shall of course carefully consider" its conclusions on confidence votes. On prorogation, it says the issue is "separate" from the Act and the draft Bill is narrowly focused on dissolution.