Who Is Doing The Heavy Lifting To Get Change Through Parliament?

It takes two houses to turn government policy into solid laws, and the political chaos of the last decade – not least with the upheaval of Covid and Brexit – means how the Commons and the Lords interact has found itself in the spotlight.

Before any law receives royal assent, it is voted through the House of Commons by MPs, followed by duplicated stages in the House of Lords where peers offer a second layer of scrutiny. Any changes in the Lords are put back before the Commons to approve and vice versa until both houses are satisfied the legislation is up to scratch. 

But with a volatile government and so much contentious legislation in recent years, there has been some speculation that MPs are swiftly pushing through bills that suit their own political aims before leaving it to the Lords to do the tedious work of ensuring what makes it to the statute books is fit for purpose. 

Dr Hannah White, director at the Institute for Government has noted that lately the "Commons has been spending less time" on legislation, while peers in the House of Lords "see it as their job" to get into the details. 

Next week this relationship will once again be in sharp focus when the government's Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill returns to Parliament. Further amendments are expected as it as it limps through its final stages. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is desperate to pass the legislation aimed at enacting Government's Rwanda deportation policy. He has previously accused “opposition in the appointed House of Lords” of trying to "frustrate the will of the people” with amendments that peers argue will lessen the chances of challenges from international courts over the compliance with human rights laws. 

The IfG's White, a former