Select committee: Constitution Committee
Conclusion 32
12th Report - A Question of Confidence? The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011
Published 4 Sep 2020
Paragraph 153
Constitution Committee Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
To determine the future of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 a series of linked questions must be answered. These are: Should the length of parliaments be fixed absolutely or should mechanisms allow for early general elections? What should be the maximum length of a parliament? Should the calling of an early general election require the consent of the House of Commons? If the consent of the Commons is required for an early general election, what threshold, if any, should be set for approving the motion? If the consent of the Commons is required for an early general election, should the Commons be asked to approve the date for the election? These questions are ultimately ones that Parliament must determine.
From: Constitution Committee, 12th Report - A Question of Confidence? The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, paragraph 153, 4 September 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 December 2020 (deadline 4 November 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government says its draft Bill will repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and revive the pre-2011 prerogative powers over dissolution, so that no Commons vote is required.
- It agrees that these powers should not be "abrogated to the Courts", and the draft Bill contains an ouster clause making their exercise and limits non-justiciable.
- It agrees that certainty on term length is desirable: the draft Bill provides that, if an election is not called earlier, Parliament will automatically dissolve five years after it first met.
- It considers the two-thirds majority requirement under the FTPA "undesirable", and says confidence motions operate most effectively as a matter of convention rather than in statutory form.
- It does not accept that the power to set the date of the election should be given to the Commons or be subject to Parliamentary approval.